Subject 1
by Striks
Summary: Not every subject has been taken against their will. This is the story of Abstergo's first volunteer.
1. Awakening

**Subject #1**

**Awakening**

His head was exploding, every nerve in his body was screaming out to him with pain, but he could do nothing about it. Nothing else was real to him at this moment; he didn't know his own name, where he was from, who his parents were, or who his first crush was. Only the pain existed. Then it lifted.

"Ok Mr Black I think that's enough for today don't you?" the voice came from above him and around him. His vision went white then slowly patches of colour appeared until they made recognisable shapes, until finally he could see again.

"What happened?" he asked, his voice sounded alien to him.

"You went under for a few minutes, do you remember anything from it?" asked the old man looking down at him.

"A woman's face, but it seemed distorted, like she wasn't quite whole"

The old man went over to the computer screen next to him and typed in a few commands then came back.

"Well I can't see any discrepancies in the data; perhaps it was your own perception of the memory that distorted her"

"Maybe it was. One more thing, is it supposed to give me a huge headache after using it?" The old man frowned at that and then his face was a mask of serenity again.

"Well we're still working out the kinks in the programming; your next session should be a much smoother one. For now though, you may go back to your quarters Mr Black."

"For the seventh time doc, my name is Michael, you can call me that"

"Ok Michael." And without another word he walked out of the big sliding doors at the other end of the room, leaving Michael by himself.

He thought about what he had experienced while inside of this miracle machine. The memories from the past lives he expected when they had briefed him about it but what he hadn't expected was the emotions that came with it.

All the love, hate, jealousy and innumerable amounts of other combinations of emotions had almost overwhelmed him, then came the moment of clarity when he was just looking at that woman's face, the only emotion he felt was a deep and unconditional love for this woman. Not the kind one has for a wife or lover, but for a sister or mother. Putting it out of his mind got up of the science fiction looking table he was sitting on and went to go have a shower.

One thing that still bugged him was the way the woman had been looking at him just before the connection was severed. He had only seen it once before in his life and he had no desire to see it again. The look she had given him was that of fear, a fear that goes down your spine, into your marrow and makes your soul want to run and hide from everything.

That night he got no sleep as he lay on top of his bed covers, thinking about what could possibly make a person be that afraid of anything.


	2. Day 10

**Day 10**

Michael thought back to how he had ended up in this situation, reliving past lives, three weeks ago he was just a systems analyst working in one of the I.T departments of Abstergo. He had heard rumours of secret projects going on in the company, time manipulation, teleportation, real star trek stuff. Obviously he hadn't believed any of it until he was shown the machine that he would spend most of his time in.

"Yo Mike, a few of us are going out for a pint, wanna join us?" asked Paul, another person that worked in his department. He was a thin man, long ratty face, wearing circular spectacles. He had befriended Michael when he first started at Abstergo and had been a kind of instructor in in-office politics, what to say and not say to the men in white coats that walked by with their nose pressed firmly on their clipboards.

"Yeah just let me quickly finish up here and get my coat" he replied

"I'm afraid Mr Black won't be joining you tonight gentlemen" the voice came from behind him through the door leading out of the office. The man who stood there was wearing one of the white lab coats that all the high level employees seemed to wear and he was old, almost too old to still be working. "I need to have a little talk with him; he can join you another time" he finished talking then and beckoned Michael to follow him. Seeing that he had no choice but to follow him, he quickly said goodbye to Paul and followed after the old man, desperately trying to remember his name so he didn't seem foolish, _why don't these guys wear nametags._ He followed the man down a long corridor and went into an elevator. The old man pushed the button for the seventeenth floor. _Walter? Is that his name? I know it starts with a W._

"I suppose you're wondering where I'm taking you Mr Black" said the old man.

"Kind of, yeah I am"

"We're promoting you so to speak, I'm taking you to your new workplace" This came as a shock to Michael, he'd only been working at Abstergo for a year and hadn't really done anything to distinguish himself above others.

The elevator stopped on the seventeenth floor and they got out. The old man led him down another corridor before stopping at a big metal door and typing in a passcode. _William? No, it's not quite a normal name, bloody hell why doesn't he just wear a nametag?_

"I'm sorry," said Michael, "But I seemed to have forgotten your name, what is it?" The old man looked at him for a second before speaking.

"Vidic. My name's Warren Vidic and I'm the head of the special operations division here at the company"

The door opened slowly and suddenly Michael was in a room that had massive processors on the walls and a futuristic looking table in the middle. A desk was placed to the sides of the room with a computer on top of it.

"And this is where you'll be working for the foreseeable future" said Vidic.

Michael was still sitting on his bed when the door to his room opened and Vidic stepped through the opening, snapping him back to the present.

"I hope you had a good night's sleep because today we're going to be in for a long session. I made some adjustments to the programming and you shouldn't be feeling headaches anymore" said Vidic, he seemed in a much cheerier mood today, _maybe he got laid?_

"Thanks doc, so who am I gonna be today? Some Florentine noble? Or maybe some guy in world war two?" asked Michael.

"Nothing quite so exciting, today we're going to see if we can access the memories of the previous generation since going too far back this early on puts too much stress on you. In other words, today you're going to be your father" replied Vidic.

"There's got to be something morally wrong with that on some level"

"I'd say morally grey, it depends how you look at it" Vidic really did seem cheerier today.

Michael got up off the bed and followed Vidic to the machine and laid down on it. Before the programme was initiated Vidic spoke again.

"I thought you'd like to know we finally have a name for the machine"

"Oh really?" replied Michael.

"We call it the Animus."

"Clever"

"We thought so, now if you wouldn't mind shutting up and focus on the task at hand please" That sounded more like the Vidic he'd come to know.

The programme initiated and the world went white. Everything materialised pixel by pixel at an incredibly fast speed until finally he could see what was in front of him. It was himself; or rather it was his father as a teenager. He was dressed in a tuxedo and was smoothing his hair in front of a mirror. The memory skipped and suddenly he was standing outside of a house and knocking. A woman came to the door.

"Oh my. Simon don't you look handsome!" she exclaimed. "She's just finishing getting ready; she'll be down in a minute. Come in dear" He walked inside and stood by the door.

The memory skipped again and he was dancing with a girl, Claire that was her name, Claire was swaying rhythmically next to him. Then she looked up at him and she was leaning in for a kiss. Simon was leaning in too. Michael realised that this was the prom and his parents were about to kiss and he was going to feel and see everything.

"Oh hell no! Vidic turn this thing off right now" His parents were now kissing passionately and Michael's mother was groping his father's bum. "Vidic! Turn it off now damn you!"

The memory stopped and the world went white again before rematerializing into Warren Vidic's face staring down at him.

"What is it, did you have worse pain?" he asked, looking concerned strangely.

"You bastard! Why did you pick that memory? Oh god I kissed my mother. Christ this is gonna cost a fortune in psychiatry bills" Said Michael.

"Oh that's what it was. I thought the Animus was hurting you again."

"Ok new rule. From now on we start from three generations and go backward. I don't want to know what my grandparents got up to either. Is that good with you." It wasn't really a question.

"Fine whatever. Now sit back down on the animus and I'll see about going further back."

Michael grudgingly sat back down and the programme initiated again.


	3. The Woman in Pink

**The Woman in Pink**

He was polishing a rifle. Today was the day he became famous, his name would be remembered in the history books. He looked over at the calendar, today was November 22nd 1963, and it was a Friday. The date didn't seem that interesting, it didn't give any indication that the world was about to change. He took his rifle apart and put the pieces inside of a black duffel bag. He put his shoes on and walked calmly outside of his apartment on the fifth floor. On the hallway he was greeted by the woman next door.

"Hi Lee" she happily said to him. His mind was elsewhere and his reply was short before walking downstairs and out of the building. The air was hot today, but then again it always was in Dallas, even in winter. He looked at his wristwatch it read 11am. He put the duffel bag inside his car's boot and got inside it drove to where he was going to wait. On the way he was stopped by no one, _security is lacking, they must think nothing's going to happen. _He smirked at that. Just as he thought that though, he was waved to pull over at the side of the road by a policeman in front of him. Quickly thinking about what he was going to do, he pulled over and waited for the policeman to come over to him.

"Where're you headed today?" asked the policeman through Lee's rolled down window.

"I'm going to see if I can see the parade go by before it's too late sir" replied Lee in the most innocent tone he could manage.

"You and a thousand other people, well I'll be happy to let you pass but first I have to make sure you're not carrying anything not allowed. So if you wouldn't by opening the mood."

Lee did as he was told and pulled the little inside his car that made the boot pop open. The policeman moved to the back of the car to inspect the boot.

As he was doing that Lee swiftly and quietly got out of the car and pulled out his silenced pistol the was concealed in his trousers. He shot the policeman twice in the chest and once in the head, just as he was taught. Before the man could fall over, Lee pushed the duffel bag over to one side of the boot and put the policeman's body inside. Closing the boot he went back to his car and continued driving to his destination. He felt a certain thrill every time he took a life, he couldn't quite explain it but everything seemed to become sharper and more vibrant when he did it, it was as if the world was sleeping and woke up whenever he took a life.

He continued driving, all the time the feeling he had after he killed someone was slowly fading. He had arrived at his destination, a small hill overlooking the freeway, perfect for what he wanted. He stopped at the bottom of the hill, got out of his car, opened the boot, the man inside was starting to smell a little, he opened the duffel bag and built the rifle. He closed the boot and walked up the hill with the rifle. At the top of the hill he went prone and looked down the scope of his rifle, _clear view of everything. _He looked at his wristwatch, the time was 12.25pm, the parade hadn't gone by yet, he could see it slowly coming his way from the west. A convoy of black vehicles led the way, with a blue open topped car in the middle of the convoy, they were moving slowly enough for secret service men to walk up beside them. They were going to reach him in about ten minutes at that pace. He didn't need that long he just needed them to get a bit closer. The people in the crowd were cheering as the blue car went by but Lee still couldn't quite see him in the car.

Then the car got a bit closer and Lee could clearly see his target, possibly his most high profile hit to date. John F. Kennedy, _today's the day, _the man was smiling waving to crowd gathered to the left and right of him, Lee was smiling too, a predatory grin.

He took aim of the president, took a deep breath to steady himself and fired off three shots, two in the chest and one in the head like he was taught. The world came alive then full of colour and screams. Screams from the crowd and the noise of birds as they flew out of trees were drowning out almost everything else. Lee was still looking through his sights and he could see Jackie Kennedy going holding her husband's head, she wasn't crying.

The memory paused, and Michael became confused as to why he hadn't come out of the animus, _damn this machine has a lot of glitches_, the memory was paused with Lee Harvey Oswald looking at Jackie Kennedy through his sniper rifle and that was also all Michael could see, this motionless face. Then she started moving again and Michael assumed that the memory had started up again but nothing else was moving, just the woman in pink's face. She was staring directly at him and was saying something to him. He couldn't understand her, all he could see where her lips moving. The world went white again. He came out of the animus once again.

"Well what did you think of that then Michael?" inquired Vidic.

"That was the Kennedy assassination. Why would I have genetic memory of the Kennedy assassination?" asked Michael, it hadn't occurred to him while inside the animus but now he was intrigued at the answer.

"Bastard son." Vidic seemed to think that was enough. But Michael didn't.

"Don't be cryptic with me, who's bastard son?"

"Lee Harvey Oswald conceived a bastard son two months after the Kennedy assassination, that bastard son was your grandfather."

"But Oswald died two days after the assassination." Said Michael, he was sure of it, he'd read about it when he was in school.

"Did he now?" asked Vidic in a mock surprised tone, "Well then I guess the fact that you have that memory shall never be explained. That is unless what you read in your history books isn't the god's honest truth." And with that he left Michael alone again to go to his quarters.

He kept thinking about the glitch that had happened near the end of the memory. It seemed too deliberate; the woman was looking straight at him when she had started talking, a glitch would have caused other errors, and from the way Vidic was earlier, it was pretty clear that he hadn't noticed any errors in the machinery. _If it wasn't an error then what was it?_ This question gave him yet another rough night's sleep and by tomorrow's session he was feeling drowsy and was hoping he could sleep while and in the animus.


	4. Psychiatrist

**Psychiatrist**

"Mr Black this is Miss Lewis, she's going to do an evaluation of your mental wellbeing." Said Vidic, while introducing the woman standing next to him. She was a slightly short, middle aged woman, slightly plump with brown hair, she was wearing a modest black skirt and jacket, and she had a clipboard with her as well.

"Nice to meet you Mr Black" her voice was professional but yet inviting, _perfect for someone who's going to analyse my every word._ Michael had never liked shrink's much, anyone that has the ability to read another person's mind freaked him out, and he didn't much like stage illusionists either.

"Please call me Michael" he said as he shook her hand, "No one else around here seems to" he looked at Vidic then and gave him a flat look.

"Ok then Michael, you may call me Betty." she gave him a smile which Michael guessed she had practiced in front of a mirror because it put him at ease immediately. They stood there for a moment in an awkward silence, although Michael guessed the woman in front of him was making up her mind about what kind of man he was from his body language, _goddamn mind reading witch,_ he hoped that none of his apprehension showed on his face.

"Well why don't we get started, Warren could you please give us the room?" Said Betty in a not so much forceful way but her voice was that of someone used to getting what she wanted.

Vidic left them alone in the room and she and Michael sat down on two identical chairs in the corner of the room, the animus was in sight over to their right.

"So how is this gonna work, do I sit here and tell you about my father?" asked Michael as a joke, but Betty was all business.

"Would you like to talk about your parents?" she asked. Remembering one of his sessions when he was his dad, Michael didn't want to think about his parents again.

"Not particularly Betty." He replied.

"Very well as you wish. Then why don't we begin with how you're finding your stay in the quarters Abstergo has given you."

Michael didn't answer straight away. If this was an evaluation of his mental wellbeing then he should be as honest as possible, but if this was some kind of test of Vidic's, and he wouldn't put it past the man, then he would have to choose his words carefully.

"They're ok I guess" He figured saying as little as he could for now would be the best course of action.

"How about the food, they feeding you what you want?" she sounded like a concerned mother but her face still didn't reflect her voice.

"The food's good." He still didn't know what to make of her.

"How about being away from your family for this long a time, does that make you feel sad at all?"

"It's only been a month. But I guess I kind of want to see them again, when I signed the contract I knew I wouldn't be authorised to leave this place for the duration. That was okay with me because I'm not too close to my family, but staying here in this room for six months is going to be pretty difficult." He had decided to talk to her, if Vidic truly were testing him, and Michael failed the test, then the only thing that could really happen would be that he would be demoted back down to the I.T department and his life would go back to normal. On the other hand if this was an actual evaluation then he could be screwing himself over if he didn't go along with it.

"One month. I see." Said Betty, she made a quick note on her clipboard and then spoke again. "How're you finding the Animus, most people who hear about it think someone's playing a joke on them".

"To be honest, this machine is unlike anything I have ever seen before, I've had a lot of time to think about this and as humans we shouldn't be able to have this technology yet, we're not that advanced, but then I go inside it and I see all these memories of people who have lived and died, and supposedly I'm related to all of them" replied Michael.

"What do you mean we shouldn't have this technology?"

"I'm not saying we shouldn't I'm saying that with the science and technology we have now we shouldn't be able to build a machine liked this, this machine is hundreds of years more advanced than anything that's out there right now"

"Maybe we're more advanced than you thought"

"Maybe but even so, the idea of genetic memory is only a theory, it's has no practical data relating to it, unless some were collected this machine shouldn't wo-" His breath stopped. This was the feeling he had the first time he was in the Animus, this feeling of intense pressure. The world went black around him. Then white wisps appeared that formed into shapes of people. They were walking in a crowd, these ghostly figures. One of them broke off the crowd and was walking towards Michael, his body felt like it weighed a tonne, his breathing was laboured and he was wheezing. The ghostly figure solidified into that of a woman. She was the woman he had first seen in the animus, she was still distorted, her skin wasn't the right colour for a human, it was almost blue and it was glowing in parts, the only parts of her that weren't distorted were her eyes and her raven black hair. Her hands softly touched his face and lifted his head up to see her properly. She started to speak but yet again he couldn't hear her, he could hear a distant whispering but the sounds weren't loud enough for him to make out the words. The whispering was slowly getting louder but his ears were pounding with his blood, he felt like his head was going to explode again. The whispering was getting louder, he could almost make out words now, and then it turned into the voice of the woman, an almost ethereal sound, like notes from a piano. He could only make out one sentence from her before he snapped out of it.

"Don't trust him"


	5. Recovery

**Recovery**

Michael woke up in a white room. There was a heart monitor to his left and an IV drip to his right. He felt numb all over and only passively aware of his surroundings. The heart monitor's steady beeping sound was the only sound made in the room. Slowly he got to a point where he could sit up on the bed. He saw a copy of Wired magazine on the cabinet to his side and opened it up. Skimming through an article about the advances of gene splicing and some advertisement for a new iPod he put the magazine down and tried to stand up.

As soon as he tried to stand, pain shot up through his body and he almost collapsed back on the bed. He started to get a headache and while this was happening an image appeared in his head of a woman with a blue complexion with a concerned expression on her face. She started to dissolve into mixtures of different colours, red and blue, green and orange. The image changed into what looked like a negative for a piece of film and swirled until the colours merged to form a white light that eventually disappeared.

The whole feeling of that image was disconcerting; like his brain was using parts of itself it hadn't used in a while and had almost forgot how to work. One more time he sat up on his head and tried to get up. This time he managed get up and take a step forward before falling back again on the bed. Giving up on standing up for now he tried to see if there was anything interesting in the room he was in. The whole room was sterile and white no decorations of any kind except a painting of a city the no longer existed, _12th century?, _apart from that the room was bare as if it was newly built.

Vidic walked in the room then accompanied by Betty, today wearing a green and brown checkered tweed jacket and a modest black skirt, she seemed in a bad mood for some reason.

"Good morning Mr Black how're you feeling?" said Vidic, even though it was a perfectly nice question to ask he didn't much sound like he cared about Michael's well-being it was as if it was something he thought he had to say and just did it out of courtesy more than concern.

"About as good as you look Doc" replied Michael.

"Sense of humour is still intact I see"

"Never mind that Warren, are you going to tell the boy what I suggested." Betty cut in. Vidic's expression changed to disdain almost.

"There's no need to worry him Miss Lewis, your theory has no proof to back it up" he was biting into his words he was obviously trying not to shout at her.

"Doc what's she talking about, what theory?" Asked Michael, at this point he could almost stand up properly. Vidic sighed and spoke.

"You had a stroke Mr Black and Miss Lewis here believes it was due to prolonged use of the Animus, and that theory is total bullshit because her theory has no proof and is therefore null."

"Warren it makes sense, the Animus taps into parts of the brain that have remained dormant for possibly millennia, with that much stress put on the brain in one go, things like seizures and possibly haemorrhaging are likely to occur." Said Betty in a matter of fact way.

"Is this true Doc?" Michael was starting to worry what other things that machine could have done to him that would affect him in the long run; it did mess with your brain after all.

"Absolutely not, she's no idea what she's talking about, now we must really get you back on your feet, we're behind schedule."

"Yeah about that Doc, what are we behind schedule for because all I know is I have these memories that you think might be important but they would still be hundreds of years old, wouldn't that make them kind of useless now?" Asked Michael concerned.

"You don't need to know what we're behind schedule for. Just that it's important, and for the memory we're looking for, it doesn't matter how much time has passed." Replied Vidic. Betty was still angry and continued to press Vidic on halting the Animus sessions, at least for now but he would have none of it. Michael wasn't really listening to this because he was thinking about what kind of thing would remain in the same place that even if hundreds of years passed it would still be there, _A castle?, A tree, what's so important about a tree? A mountain, now you're just being stupid, mountains are huge they wouldn't need a memory to find a mountain._

_"_What do you think Mr Black?" Asked Vidic, they were both looking at him now waiting for him to reply.

"I'm sorry what was the question?" he asked.

"Do you think you are fit to resume sessions in the Animus?" asked Betty this time, she seemed to want a no out of him. He had to give it some though, he did really want to know what was so important that they would go to all this trouble to find it but he felt so weak right now he could barely stand, finally he aired on the side of caution.

"I'm sorry Doc but I can barely think right now, that machine would probably only make things worse, maybe a couple more days would be good?"

"You've been in this room for a week Mr Black you've had a long enough rest I think." Replied Vidic.

"A week? Shit it felt like it happened yesterday. Well wouldn't that make it more important to rest since I've basically been comatose for a week." Vidic seemed to be struggling to say something but then finally gave in.

"Fine you have two more days in here. Then it's back to work. I don't want you getting complacent."

"Deal" said Michael. Vidic almost snarled and left the room, Betty followed after him looking happier then when she came in.

Later that day Michael was sitting up on his bed throwing darts at a dart board on the far wall that had been put there to keep him at least a little busy. He had been trying to get bulls eyes for the better part of an hour but still nothing, he barely managed to hit the outer rim of the board. Suddenly another splitting headache hit him and he clutched at his head trying to suppress it. It dissipated quickly enough and he soon felt good again. He threw the dart one more time and this time it hit dead centre. For a few seconds Michael just sat there staring at this thing, he had just thrown it without thinking and got a bulls eye in one go. He got another dart and threw that one too. It also hit the bulls eye, lightly to the left of the other one, he threw a third and that hit too. He sat there again for a long time afterwards just staring at the board with all three darts hitting the bulls eye.

_What. The. Fuck?_


	6. Prohibition

**Prohibition**

"You sure I should be doing this so soon doc?" asked Michael while slowly lifting himself up on to the Animus.

"You've had your two extra days of rest Mr Black now it's back to work. When was the Kennedy assassination?" Asked Vidic, a bit surprised by the question it took Michael a moment to remember, thinking back to the memory he recalled that Lee had looked at the calendar.

"November 22nd 1963, would you like me to tell you the time it happened as well" it was a rhetorical question and Vidic didn't much like being teased.

"I ask you this Mr Black because I need to figure out how far back I can safely go, we're still working out the flaws in the programming you see and going backwards little by little makes it safer for the subject, which would be you, and should hopefully cause no more stress on your brain."

"Well it's nice to see that you care doc." Michael lay down on the Animus and waited for Vidic to walk to the computer and activate the program.

"I assure you it's merely for efficiency, if you lapsed into a coma we couldn't really get much information from you, and our imaging monitors for the memories aren't built yet, so for now you're our only way of knowing what you saw." said Vidic before booting up the program.

"By the way, what year am I going to now?"

"Somewhere in the 1920s, still can't quite pinpoint an exact date on this blasted machine, but it'll be prohibition era America, should be quite interesting I think." Vidic then pressed the button to start the program and Michael felt the usual pressing feeling on his forehead then it vanished and the world went white.

_June 16 1922_

His knuckles were covered in blood, not his though; a man with a bleeding nose sat tied up in front of him on a chair. He looked around the warehouse he was in and saw his two friends standing a few steps back, _don't want any blood on yourselves I see. _

He looked back at the man tied and proceeded his beating. After a few more punches he grabbed the man by his sweat covered hair and pulled his head up to look him in the eye.

"Do you know who I am?" He asked the bloodied man, his voice ice. The man was trying to speak but the blood around his mouth was making it difficult to hear him, the man then spoke.

"Yes" his Irish accent came through, it was with obvious effort that he said the word too since he almost passed out afterwards.

"Then you know who I work for." This time the man only managed a nod.

"Well Paddy, you're all called Paddy right? Well Paddy since you know so much then why would you be so stupid as to sell where you're not fucking permitted!" He shouted that last part at Paddy. He put his ear up to the Paddy's face waiting for a reply.

Paddy simply spat on him and tried to laugh through broken teeth, it came out more of a croak than a laugh. He stepped back, pulled out his gun and pointed it at Paddy's head.

"Tony!" interjected his friend Ben. Tony turned around to look at his friend. "If you kill him now we won't know who he's working for."

His friend was making sense and Tony soon put his gun away. Kneeling back down again so his face was level with Paddy's, Tony spoke.

"Just tell me who your work for Paddy and I'll stop hurting ya." He tried to make his voice sound pleasant.

Paddy could speak a bit clearer now after spitting out some blood. His words came out on the verge of tears.

"If I tell you he'll kill me."

"He won't kill you because if you don't tell me right fucking now, I'll kill you myself you leprechaun screwing sonofabitch!" Tony punched the man one more time and he was out cold.

"Well that's great Tony, now he's gonna be out for a while if he don't choke on his own blood first." Said Ben, who was going over to Paddy to try to keep him from choking, Tony wiped his hands clean with a piece of cloth and looked at his watch.

"Ah screw you Bennie, I have to be going anyways. When he wakes up you get a name out of him then put a bulletin his head.

"Where you goin'?" Asked Ben as Tony was making his way to the front door.

"I have a meeting with the boss"

Leaving Ben he walked out into the cold November rain. New York had a glow around it, the lights of buildings reflecting off the rain and the soaked roads gave it this ethereal glow. Tony went over to his car and took of his now wet coat off.

Something went around his neck and before he could react he was being choked in his own front seat. The person choking him was covered in shadows, Tony was trying to reach for his gun, it was in his coat on the other seat, his hand couldn't reach it, the lack of oxygen going to his brain made the lights outside look even more vivid, he knew he didn't have long before he passed out, he'd strangled enough people to know, with only escape in mind he switched on the ignition slammed his foot down on the accelerator.

The car leapt forward and was speeding towards a brick wall, the man strangling him didn't notice this and as the car collided with the wall he flew forwards and out of the car while tony, who had grabbed his seat as hard as he could, stayed inside the car. The wire around his neck was now lying on his lap.

Ben came running outside of the warehouse and ran to Tony's car.

"Tony what happened?" he noticed the man who was now spread across the bonnet of the car, "Who's this guy."

"That guy just tried to kill me Bennie." Replied Tony, his voice was hoarse from the strangulation. He slowly got out of his car and walked over to look at the man. His face was covered in blood but Tony could make out what was a crescent moon scar around the man's left eye.

"Bennie you seen this guy before?"

"No can't say I have. Should I have?" his friend could be stupid sometimes but he was as loyal as they came and in his line of work loyalty was valued higher than intelligence.

"Shouldn't you be inside keeping Paddy alive?" Said Tony and as soon as realised, Ben went back inside.

Tony sifted through the man's pockets for a wallet with his name in it, the man had none. Just when he was about to get back inside the car he noticed a piece of silver around the man's neck, he lifted it up to see it was a medallion and on the medallion, a shape was engraved, it looked like a triangle, but it was broken apart into three pieces and written around the rim was '_Operor vestri officium, adveho quis may._' The look of confusion on Tony's face said it all; this man was not part of any gang he had ever come across, _why would he want to kill me? _

The colours of New York became brighter and brighter, the light turned white and… Michael woke up back inside of Abstergo Industries with yet another headache to add to his collection.

"Come on now Mr Black, you were in there for quite a while, tell me what you saw." Said Vidic. Michael slowly sat up and waited for his vision to become sharp again.

"Prohibition era, early twenties I'd have to guess." Replied Michael.

"Yes, yes I know all that, tell me what you saw."

"A man, probably Italian-American, involved in some kind of interrogation."

"What kind?" Vidic had started to take notes.

"I don't quite remember, something about this other guy selling on their turf. You know all that classic Mafia stuff." Vidic stopped taking notes.

"Is that it?" He asked.

"Well… there was something else. This guy whose memories I was reliving, he was being strangled. Well he managed to survive and kill his would be murderer."

"Is that all there is" Interrupted Vidic.

"Hang on I'm getting to it. You see the guy who was trying to strangle him, Tony I think his names was, the guy that was trying to strangle him, we was wearing a medallion and on it was engraved the logo of this company." Vidic went to his desk then and quickly typed something on his laptop, for a couple of minutes he stayed there and then he seemed satisfied by something. He logged out and came back to Michael.

"Our logo isn't that special Mr Black other people could have used it throughout history, the man in the memory could have just thought the design was appealing." Michael thought about this for a moment.

"Maybe you're right Doc."

"There see, mystery solved now why don't you get back to your room I have to report to my superiors." Vidic went to leave but just before he went Michael spoke up again.

"One more thing doc. _Operor vestri officium , adveho quis may._ That mean anything to you?"

Vidic stiffened, his back was turned to Michael so his face was obscured, then he relaxed.

"Do your duty, come what may. It's the motto of the Knights Templar." And with that he left Michael alone to ponder.


	7. Skills

**Skills**

Warren Vidic walked into Michael's room the next morning carrying a black briefcase, a uniformed guard came in behind him, placing the case on the table to the side he spoke.

"Can you fire a gun Mr Black?" For a moment Michael thought he was joking, after looking at his face though he saw different.

"Never even held a gun before, Vidic" he replied. Vidic opened the briefcase then and pulled out a matte black pistol.

"What do you plan on doing with that exactly?" asked Michael wearily.

"Just testing out a theory." And with that he fired a shot aimed at Michael's head. Instinctively Michael flung himself to the ground to dodge then get up and in one smooth movement, disarmed Vidic with the ease and accuracy of someone who had done it countless times before. He was about to use the gun to shoot Vidic when the guard behind him restrained him, and almost broke his arm in the process.

Michael snapped out of his trance-like state to find himself on the floor being held there by a big hulking security guard.

"That's enough Joseph I think he's fine now." Said Vidic in the way of a teacher speaking to a student. Joseph the security guard lifted himself off Michael and stood at the back of the room again, for all the world like a statue.

"Do you mind explaining to me what just happened?" asked Michael.

"I'm not quite sure, we are still the ironing out the kinks of the Animus you see, but from what I can tell you seem to have somehow inherited the skills of one of your ancestors, whether it was Lee Harvey Oswald or the man in the prohibition era is unimportant, what is important is what else you have gained as a result."

Vidic was saying all this in a way that sounded as if he had seen this thing all the time, for some reason he wouldn't be able to explain, this made Michael despise the man.

"What the fuck is your problem Vidic, you shoot at me and then talk as if nothing happened! Apparently I can't control my actions seeing as I don't remember what I did to earn what muscles over there did to me. Why are you just standing there, you never told me this could happen." Vidic took a while to reply as he wrote something on what looked like a tablet pc.

"One of the analysts has come up with a theory recently while monitoring you and subject two through the security cameras." He said

"What? There's security camera's here? You've been spying on me this whole time. You bastard!" Replied Michael angrily

"Now Mr Black you signed a contract with us, this gave us the power to do basically what we wanted for the allotted time, and you're getting paid quite handsomely for it I might add." Vidic's voice took on a sharp tone then. "So If I were you, I would stop with that self righteous attitude, you're not a victim here."

Slowly Michael ceased being openly angry at Vidic, he still remained betrayed at the fact they had place security cameras in his room and not telling him about them. Then a thought occurred to him.

"You said there was a second subject. Are they like me, using the machine?" He asked.

"Animus. And yes they are using the animus too, although for slightly different purposes, now come with me there are tests to run." Replied Vidic.

An hour later Michael was on the floor of a padded wooden training room with Joseph the big burly bodyguard looming over him.

These so called tests involved him trying to take down the guard any way he could, running, shooting and perhaps most interesting of all, being shown text in different languages, mostly Italian, and seeing if he could read them. He could not.

"That's enough for now. Joseph help him up." Said Vidic from his comfy chair at the corner of the room, still tapping away at his tablet PC. Grabbing a towel and wiping sweat off himself, Michael walked over to Vidic.

"So Doc what's your verdict.?"

"Well more study is required, however it seems that whatever abilities you may have seem to be dissipating, if I had to take an educated guess I'd say the longer you're away from the animus, the less prominent it's effects seem to be."

"So let me get this straight, going in that machine, I somehow gained the abilities of my long dead relatives?" He waited for Vidic to say anything before continuing. "You realise this sounds like science fiction right?"

"And what would you call the Animus, Mr Black? A machine that magically let's you relive your ancestor's memories, any piece of technology that is sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. That's what the animus is, an advanced piece of technology developed here at Abstergo Industries." He finished his rant and sat down tapping away at his tablet PC.

"Okay Doc, sorry I was just telling you what I thought of the whole thing." said Michael, almost sheepishly.

"Well next time keep assanine comments to yourself." Vidic said in an almost business like tone now. His mood swings were distressing to Michael.

For a while none of them spoke until Michael broke the silence.

"So this subject two, for what purpose are they using the Animus for?

"That's classified information." replied Vidic.

"Oh cmon Doc I have quite possibly the highest clearance known to man with what I know, and who am I gonna tell. They'd just think I was crazy anyway." Vidic thought about this for a while.

"Fine if it'll stop you pestering me. Subject two is a woman, who is going through much the same thing you are, except with her we started with the oldest possible ancestor we could find memories of, you'd be surprised how old that is, and it's yielded some interesting results, and that's all there really is to it."

"Is that the truth Doc?" asked Michael.

"It's the truth you're getting, now come on you're scheduled for another session in the Animus in ten minutes."


	8. Subject 2

**Subject 2**

"So why didn't you tell me there was another person using the Animus?" Asked Michael as Vidic was leading him through a series of hallways back up to the Animus chamber. This whole floor of the building seemed to be built out of metal and glass as everything, even the floor was metal however they had put some carpeting on the floor to cover it up in parts.

"You didn't need to know, simple as that." replied Vidic as they turned right onto an identical hallway to the one they left behind.

A bald scientist with glasses in a white labcoat walked by with a touchpad in his hand, he didn't even notice the two walking past, Michael had to move out of his path or ram into him. Once the man turned the corner he spoke to Vidic again.

"Then why tell me now, what's changed?"

"I told you before how with her we started with the earliest ancestor we could find. Well now we're going to do that with you, the animus has shown that it is capable of accessing the oldest memories safely and so far your memories have all been very interesting so I'm hoping that these won't be any different."

They arrived at a metal door with a circular dial in the middle of it. Vidic touched it and the dial spun to unlock the door. They both stepped into what was a room similar to the one Michael had been confined to for the past month but it was at least twice the size and instead of having one animus it had two.

"So what do you call these? Animuses, Animi?" joked Michael.

"Go stand by the one to the right if you would please." replied Vidic in a dry tone.

"One of these days I'm gonna make you crack a smile Doc" said Michael as he walked up to the animus assigned to him. Vidic just grunted at this.

Moments later the bald scientist with glasses walked back in, his fingers still darting around on the touchpad while he looked up, this time he was accompanied by a woman, whom immediately drew Michaels eye, she was of average height, her striking dark eyes and hourglass figure made her more than average and for some reason she had blue hair. Her demeanour was odd though, she seemed uneasy to be in the room, her eyes darting this way and that.

"Mr Black this is Ms Stevens and that is Dr. Fontaine" Said Vidic. Michael shook hands with Dr. Fontaine but when he tried to shake hands with the woman Ms Stevens she just moved to the animus next to his.

"The effects haven't worn off yet?" Asked Vidic of Dr Fontaine.

"Mostly they have, you should have seen her a couple of days ago, she was attacking the nurses." replied Dr Fontaine.

Michael looked at the woman now, sure she looked uneasy but he didn't think she would attack anyone.

"You can call me Michael, what's your name?" he asked Ms. Stevens as nicely as he possibly could, not wanting to upset her as she looked very fragile to him, both mentally and physically. She didn't answer him but looked towards Dr. Fontaine as if expecting a command.

"She's not been very talkative these past couple of days" said Dr. Fontaine.

Something about the man made Michael feel uneasy, he seemed to be looking at Michael more like he was a labrat rather than a person.

"Did the Animus do this to her?" he asked. "Because if it did, I'm not going back in if this could happen to me, I've already had one stroke this week, not planning for another anytime soon."

"What happened to Ms. Stevens won't happen to you I guarantee it, the malfunction with the Animus has been fixed, her brain was getting more information than it could process, it overloaded I guess you could say. We added a buffer to the machine to make it safer but you will experience some lagtime in the memory now as it is being filtered through the new programming." Replied Dr. Fontaine. "Do you understand?" He added.

"I think my brain handled that information fine" answered Michael in an insolent tone. Something about the man really was getting under his skin.

"Well now that we've all gotten to know each other shall we begin." It wasn't really a question from Vidic as he moved over to the Animus that Michael was at. "Take a seat Michael."

Dr Fontaine raised an eyebrow at Vidic's familiar tone, he didn't seem to notice. As Michael lay down on the Animus so did Ms. Stevens, _I really should find out her first name_, she didn't make a sound as Dr. Fontaine placed the visor over her eyes. Vidic placed the visor over Michael's eyes and went over to his computer.

"So how far back are we going Doc?" He asked.

"With any luck, to the beginning." replied Vidic as he was pressing keys on his computer

"The beginning of what?"

"Everything" and with that he pressed one last key and existence turned to white, then split into different colours, reds, blues ,greens, colours Michael had no names for and swiftly they moved into the form of people, buildings, the landscape was being formed in front of him like a painting of a master artist.

He had no idea what year it was but he was wearing next to nothing. A loincloth was all the clothing he had. He felt a piercing on his nose and lip, he was walking through a forest, other people were there with him. Men, women, children, the elderly people were walking some were being carried on other's backs. Michael started to lose himself in the memory as he had before with the man in 1922. His sense of self was becoming one with the person who's memory it was.

He walked with his people towards their meeting. They walked until they came to clearing in the middle of the forest. The whole procession stopped moving when they saw the huge stone structure in front of them.

It was a slowly rising jagged triangular structure of massive stone blocks. Halfway up it there was an Archway cut into the stone. That was where she would be appearing from. He looked around him, everyone was staring at the archway waiting for her to appear, their faces expectant. _Only a goddess commands that much devotion, _he thought to himself.

A huge cheer rose from the crowd and he snapped his head back towards the archway. There she was, Akna, _our mother_, she was radiant, not wearing anything yet she was obscured my some magical mist. Her pure golden eyes scanned the crowd, her sea blue skin made the eyes stand out more. As she looked around the crowd she moved from left to right, until she stopped and stared directly at him.

He froze, not knowing whether he should even breathe. She lifted her hand up and spoke in a language he did not understand and the next moment he was standing next to her he was so stunned he forgot to avert his eyes. She grabbed him by his hair and with minimal effort pushed him down to his knees.

"I have spoken with Kinich Ahau!" She called out loudly in her angelic voice, pointing her long finger at the sun above. "He has told me that your offerings have not appeased him and he threatens to leave forever!" The crowd let out a collective groan of despair.

"But fear not! He has told me that this sacrifice!" she pulled him up by his hair, he grit his teeth to not scream. "With this sacrifice he shall be happy and continue to provide you good harvest." The crowd cheered then but he did not.

His mother had told him that to be a sacrifice would be a great honour if he was ever called but now that he was here about to be killed all he wanted to do was run and scream. She pushed him down to his knees again, the crowd still cheering, she bent down to his level, he could hear and feel her breath on him.

Then she spoke English, untranslated modern day English. This shocked Michael so much he snapped out of his state. The ancestor who's body he had been inhabiting did not understand a word of what she was saying but Michael understood.

"We haven't much time." She said. Michael wanted to reply but he couldn't as she wouldn't hear him.

"The man who's memory you are reliving is going to die and for that I am sorry that you have to experience it too, but this message is important."

_What message!_ He found himself thinking and as if she had heard him she replied.

"_You are in danger right now, the men with you intend you harm and you must escape, you must also save the girl, she is the key to all of this."_

_What the hell are you talking about!_

"I'm afraid we are out of time this memory is almost over, the next time you will see me, I will explain what I can, our predictions are still not as clear as we would like, do not tell the men about what you have seen."

Then she stoop up straight and shouted in Mayan, she brought out a ring and placed it on her finger. A glow emitted from it and the whole crowd went to their knees in near ecstasy. She bent the ancestor's neck back and with what seemed to just be her finger, cut his throat and let him bleed out.

Michael felt this, he felt every single moment of this person's death, the life draining out of him. It felt like he was falling down a black hole with nothing to grab on to he clawed on for dear life but slowly the life ebbed out of him.

Michael woke up again on the Animus and proceeded to puke out his breakfast and lunch. Ms. Stevens was just coming out of her session too and she seemed no worse for wear. However something had changed about her, what he perceived earlier as uneasiness, with her shifting eyes, he now saw as her scanning and studying everyone in the room. _There's something in that head of hers._ Before he could think more on it Vidic walked up to him.

"_Be glad that's the most severe reaction you had to going back that far." said Vidic._

"_That's not why I puked. I died Vidic, I felt myself die" He hated Vidic at that point for making him go through that._

"_It wasn't you who died it was an ancestor of yours what you experienced was a ghost of a remnant of an event. The sensation of death is much more powerful than what you felt." He replied. _

"_If that's your way of making me feel better you're doing a shitty job of it."_

"_My job isn't trying to make you feel better, now what did you see?"_

"_Mayans. Hundreds of them, I was one, how is that possible?"_

"_Go back far enough you find out that we're all really from the same place." Was Vidic's reply to that. "What else happened?"_

Michael was about to tell him everything before he remembered the woman's warning.

"_Some woman was on a pyramid, she sacrificed my ancestor to their Sun God." He felt that would be enough information for Vidic, but Vidic pressed him for more._

"_I don't remember anything else, I was too busy dying!" Was Michael's angry reply. Vidic looked angry for a second then something made him stop._

"_What did you get from the girl?" He asked Dr. Fontaine. Fontaine was leading the girl out of the room when he stopped to talk._

"_On account of her condition my analysis shall have to be a little less direct than yours, I'll have a report for you in the morning" he turned to leave. Ms. Stevens turned around then and spoke one word to him before leaving with Fontaine._

"_Alma" Then they both went out the door._

"_What did she mean by Alma, Vidic? Is that her name?" Asked Michael._

"_I have no idea. Her name is Chloe." replied Vidic. "Come on we must be heading back there is still more work to do._

Michael followed Vidic wordlessly through the hallways leading to his room. His mind however kept repeating the same three words. _Save the girl._


	9. Retention and Revelations

**Retention and Revelations**

_Save the girl. _That's what the woman, Akna, had said. Michael could not sleep that night. The days events had made him restless to say the least. The woman had blue skin, _how is that possible?. _He then remembered the first time he had gone into the Animus.

The woman had appeared then too, although he had attributed that to the Animus messing with his brain and had dismissed it. He now recalled the moment when he, as Lee Harvey Oswald, had killed John Kennedy.

The animus had glitched then too and he had seen Kennedy's wife just staring at him. She had not turned blue then but with this new information he had, that this woman seemed to be able to talk to him through the animus, that encounter with Jackie Kennedy took on a whole different meaning.

_It seems she's been trying to communicate with me from the start_. The cameras in his room were supposedly removed but Michael wouldn't have put it past Vidic to be lying to him. Putting down the dart he had been throwing at the dartboard they had let him keep after his stay at the hospital Michael went into the bathroom, _even Vidic wouldn't want cameras in here unless he like to watch me shower._ The thought made him shiver.

In the bathroom he sat down on the toilet and tried to think of what to do next. Nothing came to him, he was getting frustrated by the fact that he could not do anything, couldn't even think of anything. Then it hit him again, another seizure. He convulsed on the floor, knocking over things on his way down.

The world went bright then, he no longer felt his body, it was like being in the Animus the colours in his head swirled and formed the shape of a man in a car that had just crashed, the man was rubbing his neck where he had almost been strangled. The colours swirled again and he was on a hilltop looking down the scope of a sniper at a man in a car. Then it ended, his body went limp and for a second Michael was paralysed. Then his finger twitched and then his hand moved and pretty soon feeling returned.

He stood up then and felt no different, _so at least it did no damage this time_, he walked back into his room. Saw the dart on his desk where he had left it, going over and picking it up he looked from the dart to the dart board, _could that seriously be the trigger_, he closed his eyes then and threw the dart in the direction he believed the dartboard to be. When he opened his eyes the dart was nowhere near the board, instead it had lodged itself into the wall. Smiling to himself, _that kind of shit only happens in movies_, he went over to the wall and pulled out the dart, the wall sparked, or rather what was in the wall let off a spark.

Michael started to peel off the bits of the wall surrounding the tiny hole, this wasn't hard as whoever had built this wall had decided instead of using brick to use cheapest wood he could find. Inside of the tiny whole he found a camera with it's lens cracked where the dart had pierced the glass. It was still on and still supposedly recording. Michael's anger flared, he put his face right up to the camera and spoke in a low dangerous tone.

"When you decide you want to explain to me just what is happening here I will listen, but until you do I will personally tear this place apart and destroy every camera in this room. Do you hear me Vidic you fucking liar!" The last bit came out as a growl.

Five minutes later Michael was sitting on the foot of his bed waiting. The door to his room opened up and in came the big bodyguard that had been with Vidic the day he shot at him.

"Where's Vidic?" asked Michael in a bitter tone, he had had enough of knowing only half of what was going on and taking all the risk.

"Dr. Vidic would like to see you." The bodyguard replied.

"I suppose we mustn't keep him waiting then."

He got up from the bed and went to walk out of the open door, then it all happened at once. The bodyguard produced a syringe from behind him and tried to stick into Michael's arm, instinctively, whether his or his ancestor's, Michael dodged it and grabbed the arm with the syringe, putting his entire weight into it he drove the arm and needle deep into the left side of the bodyguard's chest. The man fell like dead weight to the ground.

Michael pulled the needle out of the man and a small trickle of blood was coming out of the hole. He had pierced the man's heart. This fact had no registered with him yet as Michael was acting more on an instinctual need to escape rather than thought.

He ran for the door and down the hallway, looking for an elevator or a staircase down, he knew at least that he was high up judging from the view, at the end of the hallway he found a staircase and took it. About three floor down he heard footsteps coming up, he went for the first door he saw and came out on a similar hallway to the one he left behind, _Save the girl, _the voice in his head made him snap out of his trance it was the voice of Akna.

He remembered killing the man now and almost gave up then and there, he had never harmed anyone before and had never thought himself capable of it. He couldn't go back now, not that he had killed one of Vidic's men, they'd hunt him and see him killed, he had to escape as quickly as he could, that seemed like the best option.

Something stopped him though, that voice in his head kept repeating the same three words. He found himself turning around and putting his hands on his head, the men burst through the door from the staircase and spotted him, they shouted for him to get on the ground and raised their guns at him. He went to his knees with his hand on his head and waited for them to drag him off somewhere, _once I get the girl then I can leave. Fuck this is stupid._ He assumed they would just pull him up to his knees and march him away, one of the men went up to him and hit him with the butt of his gun so hard Michael passed out. The last thing he saw was the floor.

He woke up in the Animus, it wasn't on, Vidic was tapping away at his keyboard and some monitors had been placed around the computer next to the Animus. He tried to get up but found himself restrained by the same kind of restrains they use on mental patients, the leather wrist straps were digging into him.

"You've been through a lot tonight Mr Black." Said Vidic when he saw that Michael was awake. "First you break one of our cameras, the expense of which coming out of your paycheck I'll have you know, and then you have us chasing you all through the company."

"That man. Is he-?"

"Dead? Yes, Joseph died almost immediately from that syringe to his heart."

"Then why aren't I in jail, why haven't the police come to take me away?" asked Michael

"Because you acted in self defence of course, that man intended you harm. You don't need to feel guilty."

"You told him to stick me with that syringe, his death is on your head." Vidic was right he was acting in self defence and it was Vidic's fault this had all happened, _So why do I feel like a murderer?._

"I did no such thing, Joseph acted of his own accord and was punished, I call that karmic justice don't you?"

"I call it something else. Why am I restrained, let me go!"

"I will as soon as you can be trusted to remain still during these sessions."

Vidic's calm voice was unnerving. Michael stopped fighting against his restraints and tried to regain his composure.

"What are these monitors for?" he asked, trying to keep the conversation open.

"These are for seeing what you see, we're going to be viewing your memories as you do, in real time, isn't that just amazing?"

"Truly wondrous." Michael's dry humour would get him nowhere, "Are you afraid I haven't been truthful?"

"Well with what you did tonight how can you blame me for not being completely trusting."

He was turning on the monitors now and they displayed a blank screen with 'NO SINGAL' in big bold letters.

"Maybe I'm tired of not trusting you Vidic. You've been lying to me since day one, you won't even tell me what you're looking for, I've been having seizures since you using this cursed machine and you talk to me about trust. Just tell me what the fuck you're looking for!" He was fighting against his restraints again when Vidic walked up to him.

"Fine" he said "You have earned an explanation perhaps. We're looking for a key Mr. Black."

"A key to what?"

"What is a memory Michael?" He asked like a teacher to a student. For a second Michael thought this was a trick.

"A recollection of past events." He replied.

"Specific to the individual experiencing that event. How you remember something could differ to how someone else does."

"I suppose."

"But the major things are never different you don't forget someone dying or living or any other absolutes, but that's all they are, memories, unchangeable and set in stone. But what if you could?"

Despite himself Michael had to laugh at this.

"You're talking about changing the past. As amazing as this machine is it doesn't let you go back in time Vidic so I think you're kind of screwed there."

Vidic wasn't fazed by this. "Of course the Animus can't go back in time, but something else can. And this key we're looking for that could be the last piece of a very long puzzle."

"You're telling me you've invented time travel?" Michael was incredulous, this man seemed crazy to him now, _but what if he did do it._

"Me? No I wish I had, no this is an old invention. By others. We just haven't been able to find, I guess you could call it the fuel to turn the whole thing on."

He walked back to his computer and started typing again.

"Now let's see if we missed anything the first time around, and remember, I'll be watching the whole time." Vidic's grin was predatory as he pressed the last button to start the animus.

The world went white once more and then solidified into shape of a forest with people. Michael was back in the memory of his Mayan ancestor and they were walking towards the same pyramid where he had seen the blue skinned goddess.

He was helpless to stop it and Vidic would soon find out that he was lying about what he saw. He willed the memory to stop but it didn't he tried to fight against his restraints but as always his mind and body were in two different places when in the Animus.

They came out of the forest into the clearing where the Pyramid was. The people were looking up expectantly.

Then she appeared. A brown skinned woman with brown eyes. She looked like a queen, not the goddess Michael remembered, she looked through the crowd and stopped when she saw him. She beckoned him up and instead of being here then there like before, he walked up slowly , the people parting before him. Once he was up there he could see down at the huge crowd of people and then she yanked his head back and pushed him to his knees, she bent down so she could speak to him. Instead of English she spoke Mayan and instead of the warnings she had given Michael she was saying a prayer then she cut his throat and this part happened like Michael remembered. The dying was all too similar.

And then he woke up still strapped to the Animus and to an angry look from Vidic. He was looking at the monitors and then at Michael then back at the monitors.

"This is what you saw?" He asked Michael.

"Every single moment of it, memories can't be changed remember." He dared not smile at his fortune for fear of Vidic strangling him, he was restrained after all. Vidic turned off the monitors and went to leave the room.

"Hey you're not gonna leave me like this!" He said still strapped to the Animus.

"It's more comfortable than a jail cell" Then Vidic left.


	10. Midnight Conversation

**Midnight Conversation**

Killing a person was not troubling Michael as much as he thought it would, instead his mind kept wandering to the name the girl with the blue hair, Chloe, has spoken Just before she left. _Alma,_ it sounded like an old fashioned name, _maybe her mother or grandmother_, but what would her relatives have to do with his situation right now.

When Vidic had left him still strapped to the animus a couple of hours ago Michael thought he was just making a point and would soon come back to release him from his restraints, now it seemed like he was going to have to sleep like this. The fact the restraints were too tight and digging into him didn't help much with the comfort.

"I've learnt my lesson!" He shouted at no one in particular. "I know you can hear me and see me with your eyes in the walls!" still no answer came, "Answer me you fucking pricks!" He struggled against his restraints for the hundredth time and still they did not give.

A cool blue light appeared near his where his legs were strapped, the computer had turned on. A series of beeps and the animus started to glow too, it was getting ready for a session.

"Hey this thing just turned on by itself!" nothing but the sound of the animus came as answer. Then the visor crossed over his eyes and he couldn't move his head for fear of breaking the glass, he closed his eyes and waited for the session to start.

But it didn't, when he opened his eyes he was staring at writing on the glass visor.

"_Are you okay?"_

The words hung there for a while as he couldn't reply to them. Finally he just said, "No", the reply came back.

"_What's wrong?"_

"How can you hear me?" he asked

"_Voice recognition in the Animus."_

"_What's wrong?"_

Voice recognition in the Animus? That was a function Vidic hadn't spoken to him about before. _Why would he tell me everything._

"I'm strapped to the Animus, I can't move."

"_Aww poor baby"_

"What?"

A little while passed before he got a reply this time.

"_Sorry about that, we need to get you out of those restraints then."_

"Yeah no shit, who are you?"

_It depends on the day and how I'm feeling._

"What, who else is there with you?"

_Sorry that happens sometimes, it's Chloe, the girl you saw the other day, I wasn't feeling my best then._

"Chloe? Who else is there with you?"

"_Just me, sometimes the others speak through me."_

"Great I'm talking to a schizophrenic " he said aloud

"_A what?"_

"Nothing nevermind" _best not upset an already unstable person. "_How are you going to get me out of here?"

"_I can't do anything from here, you're going to have to find another way of escaping, have you retained any of your ancestor's skills?"_

"Yeah but none of them were Houdini so that's unlucky" She obviously didn't pick up on his sarcasm because her reply was,

"_That is indeed unlucky, it would be very useful."_

"How are you doing this anyway where did you get the ability to hack computers?"

"_The same way you learnt how to kill a man. The past."_

"The past didn't have an Animus."

"_You haven't gone back far enough. Don't worry you will."_

What she meant by that Michael could not begin to guess but all this talking was getting him nowhere, he was still strapped to an overly expensive table talking with a crazy person about past computers.

"How am I getting out of here if you can't help me?"

"_If you would shut the fuck up she will explain. Sorry that was Moira, she has a potty mouth."_

"She sounds very pleasant."

"_My fists are pleasant too."_

"Chloe please! Tell me what you were going to say."

"_Yes sorry. Okay. In the morning when Vidic comes back, tell him 'The piece is in Peleliu'. That should help your situation."_

"Wait what piece, what's in Peleliu?" No answer came this time and the visor went down again, the computer turned off and once again he was cast in darkness and silence. _Fuck._

His uncomfortable night's sleep was interrupted by a sharp jab from Vidic.

"How was your night?" He asked

"I had the most amazing dream, you weren't in it." replied Michael still groggy from being woken.

"It seems your wit is still in place. Are you ready for another session?" He asked as he set about typing on the computer.

"The piece is in Peleliu." Time seemed to stop when Michael said that, Vidic turned to him with a genuine look of surprise, it was the intellectuals equivalent to having your jaw wide open. He stopped typing and slowly walked over to Michael so he could look him in the eye.

"What did you just say?" He asked very slowly.

"The piece is in Peleliu, does that mean anything to you?"

Vidic took a mobile phone out of his pocket and rung someone on his speed dial.

"Hello, yes I think we may have one. It's in Peleliu, it seems were correct about the general area. It is certainly good news, Goobye." He then turned back to Michael.

"Where did you know to look?" He asked him.

"It came to me in the Animus." Michael answered with as much of the truth as he dared reveal, right now Chloe was his only link out of the room.

Vidic looked down at the Animus and shoot his head slowly.

"Still they surprise us." He muttered softly.

"Who does?"

"The first people." answered Vidic, "Now because you've helped us I think we can remove these restraints, and as long as you continue cooperating they'll stay off." A different bodyguard came through the door a couple of minutes later and removed Michael's restraints. Slowly sitting up he massaged his wrists and got up off the Animus and started walking towards his room.

"Where do you think you're going?" Asked Vidic.

"I've been strapped to that thing all night, I stink and I need a shower, do you object?"

"Ten minutes then you'd better be ready."

"I just gave you something I'm judging to be very valuable so can we just skip today's session?"

"We're not having a session, we're leaving."

Michael stopped and turned back to him.

"Where are we going?" he asked

"Peleliu."


	11. Ends Justify Means

**Ends Justify Means**

"How did you find out about the Piece of Eden?" Asked Vidic as they were sitting the Abstergo private jet they were taking towards Peleliu. Looking down through the window Michael was reminded how much he hated heights, he moved away from the window to look at Vidic.

"I don't remember it just came to me, it must have been during one of my earlier sessions and it just didn't register with me." He didn't know whether he was a good liar or whether Vidic was just really good at showing no sign of distrust, probably the latter, because he didn't press him on it.

"Why do you call it the Piece of Eden, is it some kind of religious artefact? Is that what this whole thing has been about, recovering some lost heirloom?"

"The Piece of Eden is so much more than just an artefact, but you don't need to know about that. What you need to do is remember where you saw it, what part of the island." Michael put his hand in his trouser pocket to feel for the piece of paper he had scrawled the location of the Piece of Eden on.

It had happened when he was getting ready to go, Vidic had said ten minutes but it was over an hour before they even left the building, and it wasn't even out of the front door but through some dark garage, but before he left the animus had turned for a minute again and on it were written a set of coordinates and the word 'HERE' typed underneath, he had quickly written down the numbers and said a silent thank you to Chloe before leaving. Now he was somewhere in the Pacific Ocean heading straight for the island.

"Why Peleliu?" He asked suddenly, it hadn't occurred to him to ask why some important religious artefact would be hidden in a tiny island in the middle of the ocean.

"It's a perfect place to hide something. A remote island in the middle of the ocean with very little to on it for people to be interested in, it has plenty of place to hide things within it's forest, why not Peleliu, no one would think to look for it." replied Vidic

"So how did you know to look for the piece there?"

"The same way we knew about your interesting ancestry, we are masters of record keeping." Michael noticed he used the word 'we' like he was speaking of something other than abstergo industries, giving Michael even more reason to distrust this person. _Can't do anything about it until we get back home. _Right now he was in the hands of a man who twenty four hours ago had strapped him to a table and left him there.

"And you only recently found this out? I'm guessing since you didn't know exactly where the piece was."

"No we've known for quite some time."

"How long ago did you find out?"

"Oh for a good sixty years now." He waited for Michael to put it all together.

"That would have been during the Battle of Peleliu. You can't tell me arranged all that."

"How else can you explain the war generals agreeing to fight for an island that was of no real strategic importance, but you must understand, we didn't know it was in Peleliu all this time, we need to narrow it down, we knew it was one of the islands of Palau so we covered all our bases." Silence for a moment. Then Michael got angry, angry for reasons other than his own predicament.

"You sent thousands of men to their death. Thousands. And for what? A trinket?" Vidic had a genuine look of remorse on his face as Michael was saying this and he was quiet for a long time after. Michael was still seething when Vidic finally replied.

"If you knew what I knew, you would understand that what those men did. They helped in the creation of something bigger than all of us. They secured the island so that we could use what was on it to end all of this fighting, even as speak somewhere in the world war rages on." He was silent then and Michael was seeing Vidic in a whole new light, but he still couldn't agree with him.

"So you're an, ends justify the means, type of person. " He replied although it sounded half hearted even to him. Vidic replied quietly and wearily, for once showing that he was indeed an old man and tired.

"I did not send those men to die. But given the choice of sending thousands to their deaths or leave the future uncertain for decades afterwards. You're fucking right I'm a, ends justify the means, type of person."

Michael wasn't sure what he could say to that. Up until now he had thought Vidic was a man who was out for personal gain. The fact the man believed in a cause, however they went about achieving it, humanised him. So he changed the subject instead.

"Why are you telling me any of this?" He asked.

Vidic had composed himself now and was back to being the calm and collected man Michael had come to know.

"You're a valued employee of the company, and despite your earlier," he paused to think of a word, "transgressions you haven't shown yourself to be anything more than confused and as naturally comes with confusion sometimes, frightened. So I can't really hold it against you. I promise you, if you continue being helpful you'll soon learn more."

The rest of the trip went on in silence as Michael mulled that over.

When they landed in the airfield at Peleliu they were greeted by two suited men who introduced themselves as Gus, a thin tall Hispanic man, and James, an equally tall but more stocky white man. They escorted them to a Jeep that would take them to their destination. When Vidic asked Michael where the location was, he handed him the piece of paper with the coordinates on it. Gus typed in the numbers on the GPS and it led them, to a very unremarkable piece of undisturbed earth about an hour drive away from the airfield. Vidic got out of the Jeep and looked around.

"Are you sure?" He asked Michael.

"Those are the numbers I got." He replied. Vidic looked thoughtful for a second and then turned around to the two men with them.

"I guess we best start digging. Call in a crew let's have this whole area excavated by tomorrow." The two set about making phone calls and Vidic walked up to Michael.

"I said earlier that if you continued to help us you would be rewarded, and that still applies, however if this turns out to be nothing. Well even I have bosses and they don't like to be disappointed."

As he was saying this Michael noticed something out of the corner of his eye. A flicker. He turned his head and it was a man, flickering in and out of existence almost like a ghost. He was carrying a golden ball with him with markings all around it. He wrapped it in a bundle and placed it in a small metal chest all the while he kept flickering out of reality and back again, then he proceeded to place the chest into a hole in the ground. Then he vanished, the hole in the ground was now covered in grass and you would not have seen anything interesting about that spot were it not for the vision Michael had. He was about to tell Vidic where the Piece of Eden then stopped himself. _I have to find out what they want first._

"You'll find it I'm sure." He said. _Anything to delay them a while._


	12. Whiskey And Cigarettes

**Whiskey And Cigarettes**

It was the middle of the night and Michael was sitting in his tent. It was large enough for a bed and a small desk with a chair, a lamp on the desk illuminated the tent with a warm glow, Vidic was given a similar tent to stay in. Outside could be heard the sounds of machines digging through dirt in hopes of finding the treasure Abstergo sought. _At least they're digging in the wrong direction_.

Michael was sitting at the desk thinking about Chloe trying to decide whether she was insane and the task that had been handed to him to 'save the girl' wasn't just an effect of the Animus messing with his head, then Vidic walked in carrying a bottle of whiskey and two glasses.

"Evening doc, what can I do for you?" asked Michael.

"That digging is infuriating, I was going to have a drink but I can't think of anything more depressing than drinking alone." Said Vidic in his usual matter of fact, and always slightly angry tone.

"I can think of a few things, but come in take a seat and pour some glasses." Vidic walked up to him but didn't take a seat on the bed, for a moment Michael didn't realise what he was hinting at but then sighed and got off the only chair in the tent and sat on the bed. _Even here he has to be the boss_.

Once he had sat down, Vidic poured two glasses of whiskey and lit a cigarette for himself. They drank the first sip in silence and remained that way for a while. After sucking on his cigarette Vidic spoke.

"I suppose you still have some anxieties about us, while we're here why don't you get them off your chest." Again his demeanour changed like it had on the plane ride, Michael didn't know how to react to this Vidic, _could be a trap_.

"I don't have any anxieties, you explained yourself earlier and it's all fine now" replied Michael.

"I am speaking to you frankly, please do me the favour of not playing games and tell me what you think of all this."

Michael had to pause, he glanced at Vidic's glass of whiskey and wandered whether it was really so strong as to make the man drop his guard. He decided to test this out.

"I've been thinking, once you get this artefact, what do you plan to do with it?"

"Save the world"

"So nothing too big then." His sarcasm was lost on Vidic.

"The world is broken," Michael had to agree to this as it made sense, "If you were given the chance to fix it, not temporarily like some earlier attempts but permanently and for eternity, wouldn't you take that chance" his question was rhetorical but Michael answered anyway.

"The world is broken, I agree with you, but you can't force peace that's something people have to decide for themselves."

"How old are you Michael?" Vidic asked taking another swig of his whiskey.

"Twenty five, twenty six in a couple of months."

"I'm sixty one, when I was born my father went to fight in Korea and came back a bitter man, when I was twelve he went off to Vietnam and there he died, I could tell you I shed tears for him because that's what you're supposed to say, the truth is I was happy when he died, it meant one less bitter old man in the world. Now years later I am the bitter old man" he took another swig of his whiskey and laughed a scratchy laugh and had a bit more of his cigarette.

"People can't decide to have peace because the nature of man is to kill, the ancestor you visited in the Prohibition era for example he was a hired killer, that's how much we have been desensitised to death that we now see it as a business. With the Piece of Eden we have a key piece of a very big puzzle to help us change the nature of man, and to have an end to bitter old men." He took one last swig of his whiskey and finished the glass, then poured himself another.

Michael hadn't touched his since Vidic was making his speech.

"That's quite a speech you made." Said Michael as he took another sip of his whiskey.

"I've had years to perfect it, drink up that glass and let me pour another, that digging is going out there is going to go on all night and I still have more than half a bottle left." Michael downed the rest of the glass and Vidic poured him another, at that moment the world flashed bright orange and then the shockwave hit the tent so hard it flew away into the forest leaving Michael sitting on a bed in the middle of the forest with a drunken Warren Vidic next to him. The whole scene would have been comical were it not for the burning wreckage of what had been the digger scattered around the camp.

Warren immediately sobered up as he began yelling orders for water and a medic to go to the aid of the worker who had been on the machine when it exploded.

Michael was running with him to where the explosion had happened and saw a body charred body being pulled from the wreckage of the destroyed digger, the smell of burned flesh mixed with the whiskey shot he just took on an empty stomach caused him to puke right there. No one noticed as they were busy and Vidic was too busy giving orders.

"You go grab another hose and put that fire out before this place looks like Vietnam! Gus what the hell happened here?" Whatever Gus' answer was Michael didn't hear because he saw the man flickering in and out of existence again. He looked to where all the men were busy helping clear the wreckage and putting out fires and no one was looking his way. Making up his mind he followed the ghost of the man towards the forest, he picked up a shovel along the way from where some of the work tents were that hadn't been blown away by the explosion.

He was led to an unremarkable piece of land in the forest and saw the man yet again place the small metal chest into the ground.

Here he dug with the shovel; the man had hidden it fairly deep as it took him a good fifteen minutes to dig until he hit the chest. Going to his knees he wiped away the last of the dirt and pulled the chest up. His excitement at finding it faded very quickly when he found that it was locked with some kind of mechanism, it wasn't a keyhole as the opening was perfectly circular and wasn't deep enough for a key, it looked like a tiny bowl in the middle of the chest.

"There you are" he heard Vidic's voice coming from the forest as he slowly emerged from the trees flanked by Gus and James. The two big security guards had their guns out but hadn't pointed them yet. _Run, _was his first thought but where could he run to, this was an island. If he fought he would be killed. If he lied and was caught out he would most likely killed be tortured and then killed.

"I saw something, I don't know how to explain it, it was a man, a ghost of a man, it led me here and it showed me where to dig." It was the most ridiculous thing he had ever said but it was the truth and he hoped that Vidic would believe him. He was taken aback as this wasn't what he was expecting as Michael's defence.

"And this vision of this ghost, you only saw it a few minutes ago." Replied Vidic.

_Come on now lie like your life depends on it._ "Yes"

A long silence stretched and the security men's fingers were getting twitchy on their triggers.

"Help Michael up Gus, James take the chest away from him and put it on the plane, I think we found what we're looking for."


	13. What's In The Box?

**What's In The Box?**

He was being escorted by the two security guards up to the plane. One the way he saw the still burning wreckage of the digger that had exploded, men were fighting the flames with buckets of water being passed to them and hoses, he saw Vidic look once in his direction before going to back to help put out the fire, and he found he didn't care at all about the people still in danger from secondary explosions, his own situation was still dire enough that he didn't know whether he would live or die when he got on the plane.

"Shouldn't you two be helping put out the fire, I'm not gonna run anywhere." Michael said to them both. He was met with silence and cold stares and James constantly pushing him forward towards the plane.

Then the secondary explosion happened, a piece of metal flew and hit Gus square in the face, Michael heard a sickening crunch as the man's face caved in and he fell to the ground dead. James was luckier and nothing hit him, he dragged Michael to the ground and told him to stay down. Michael looked towards where the explosion had happened, he could see a huge pillar of flame and people's silhouettes near the fire. Some weren't moving. He couldn't tell where Vidic was and that was his last thought before something hit him hard on the head and darkness took him.

_Tony was bleeding from a shallow cut across his throat. The man sent to kill him was lying on the hood of his car after flying out of the windshield. He looked at the segmented triangle necklace in his hand, the sides no quite meeting, and the engraving _'Operor vestri officium, adveho quis may'

"_Hey Bennie, Can you read this?" He shouted inside of the warehouse where Ben had just gone back in to see if their guest was still breathing. He walked inside to find the man they had just been interrogating still in the chair but unconscious, not dead, by the way his chest was slowly moving up and down. Ben was examining the man when he saw Tony enter the warehouse._

"_He won't be waking up for a while, what's up?" He asked Tony while moving away from the unconscious Irish man._

"_Can you read this?" He handed Ben the dead man's necklace. Ben turned it over in his hand and examined the strange words._

"_Is it Irish?" asked Ben when he looked at the words._

"_Gaelic, and I don't think so, no one knew we had Paddy over there tied up. And if they had found out I don't think they would have sent one man, you know how they are." Ben nodded to this in the wisest way he could which came off as him looking simple._

"_D'you know who'd wanna kill you?" asked Ben._

"_Pick someone, Johnny the Snail, the Antolio Twins, hell the entire east side, you don't exactly make friends in our line of work." He looked over to where the unconscious Irish man was slowly bleeding in his sleep._

"_You keep him alive, I'll want to talk to him when he wakes up, I'll go talk to the boss, see if he knows anything about this."_

"_Your car's fucked, how're you gonna go to him?" asked Ben._

"_I have two perfectly good legs Bennie, I think they'll do."_

"_I meant, what with someone trying to kill you, it won't be too safe walking back alone."_

"_I'm touched that you care, don't worry, I still have my gun." He patted his jacket to show Bennie he wasn't afraid, but it was to make sure that he actually had his gun. _Can't be too careful._ "I'll be back in the morning, lock the place down, find the telephone and call a few people in for backup."_

Before his eyes the world melted away as if in a fog.

Michael woke up on the plane the next morning, it hadn't lifted off yet he noticed when he sat up to look out the window. A small trail of black smoke was rising in the distance where the digger had exploded, _twice what are the chances of that_. Vidic walked in looking tired, his clothing was covered with dust and he was carrying a syringe in his hand.

Michael bolted out of the seat he was in and swiftly sat back down again because of the pounding headache rising had given him.

"Easy now Mr Black, you've received quite a blow to the head you're lucky it didn't kill you. Gus on the other hand wasn't so lucky." Said Vidic as he walked slowly closer to Michael, he never took his eyes off the syringe.

"What happened out there Vidic? I thought everything was under control." He replied, _look for something to hit him with and run_, his thinking would have seemed foolish to him but at that moment with a head injury and lack of trust for the syringe wielding Vidic he wasn't really thinking clearly.

"The fire crew wasn't fast enough with putting out the fires before it got to the fuel tanks, the result obviously you saw that." He then took another step forward, Michael leaned away from him.

"And how is it you escaped Doc? Last thing I remember was you being close to the whole thing." It hadn't occurred to him until then that Vidic didn't look hurt at all, dirty sure but not hurt.

"I was lucky enough to be behind a truck when the explosion happened, it took the shrapnel and I just got a hefty covering of dusk and breathed in some smoke." He replied. _Once he gets close I'll just grab his hand and stick that needle in him_.

"That is lucky, hey erm I need to use the toilet so-"

"Stay there Mr Black." _Now_. He practically leaped up from his chair and went for Vidic's arm, or at least he tried to because before he could James had grabbed him and was restraining him in a full nelson, _Where the hell did he come from?_

"Just relax Mr Black, I only need a sample of your blood that's all." Said Vidic and then smoothly slid the needle into his arm and began taking his blood. Once done, James the bodyguard sat Michael back down on to his seat and pulled the small chest Michael had found earlier out of the back of the plane.

"I suppose you'd like to know why I just took your blood" Said Vidic in a tone that sounded as if he might as well have been talking about the weather.

"At this point Vidic, with the amount of shit you've put me through, taking some blood doesn't rank very high on things I'd like to know about." Replied Michael, he was still feeling the effects of the stab of pain he got on the back of his head when he had tried to grab Vidic and James stopping him.

"Regardless, I'm sure you'll find it interesting. It's the chest you found, the mechanism that looks it is ancient and advanced."

"That's an oxymoron, how can it be both?" He asked.

"That falls under the category of things you'd like to know, but can't know. Anyway, the chest is locked by a mechanism that won't respond to a conventional key." James handed the chest to Vidic.

"It is a keyhole but it responds to a specific DNA type, I'm willing to bet whoever put that chest in the ground was one of your ancestors and therefore one can assume that he meant for his descendants to open it. That would be you." Michael had to pause for a moment to make sure that what Vidic was saying made any logical sense; he found that it did not.

"One can assume" He said finally. Vidic smiled then, something that was so rare to see him do that instead of feeling comforted Michael felt a deep fear rise up inside of him.

"If this works Michael, and if what is inside this box is what I think it is, well then tomorrow could be a whole new world."

He placed the needle on the chest, squeezed the blood out onto the little bowl-keyhole, the mechanism clicked then and the blood drained from the bowl and went inside somewhere in the chest. A long time passed before anything was said as they were both waiting for the chest to open. A minute passed. Nothing. Five minutes passed. Nothing. Ten.

"It didn't work." Said Vidic in resignation. Michael had to admit a part of him was disappointed because he wanted to see what this Piece of Eden was, and another part of him was overjoyed that Vidic didn't get his hands on it.

"What did you expect, what you were saying about an old machine that opens because of DNA, it's all science fiction." Said Michael.

"Everything is science fiction until someone builds it." Replied Vidic, "Get strapped in Michael we're headed back home, and once we're there. You are going to help me open this box, or your usefulness will have come to an end." Then James roughly strapped the seatbelt around Michael.


	14. Hopeless

**Hopeless**

They were flying over the pacific now. They had left Peleliu about an hour ago and still had most of the flight left to go. Michael had not been spoken to by anyone since James strapped him to his chair, which brought up bad memories of being strapped to the Animus. Vidic had gone to the other side of the plane and was facing away from Michael. James was sat opposite Michael; it looked like he was paying no attention to him as he was reading a magazine but Michael knew that if he made any move to get up James would spring into action.

He resolved to stay quiet and pacified, until they reached America again at least, _can't really do much while trapped in a plane_. He looked outside the window of the plane and saw nothing but blue ocean, pristine and peaceful looking from this far up, the waves slowly rising and crashing against each other, the dangerous waters seemed almost inviting compared to the sterile cleanness of the jet.

Looking at the ocean was starting to depress him and he turned back towards the hulking mass of James the bodyguard, who was still reading his magazine, it looked miniature in his hands.

Akna had told him to 'save the girl'; he almost laughed aloud at that. Why on Earth would anyone think him capable of saving anyone, he was just an I.T guy who missed his family, not some kind of hero. Heroes were people who could effortlessly escape the bonds that held him now and then knock out James as if here nothing more than a bug, not a brute, then proceed to fly the plane down to an airport where they would somehow come up with a plan to 'save the girl'. Those words were becoming almost like a chant in his head, anytime he rested they just appeared in his head, over and over, _I'll save the girl if you shut up about me saving the girl_, the words never listened to him.

He looked at Vidic, the man was still facing away from and hunched over the box he hadn't been able to open earlier. That night in the tent it seemed, was a moment of unintentional humanity from Vidic, whom Michael had since decided was in fact a golum type creature who occasionally mimicked human interaction. A small headache started in his head, and then left as soon as unexpectedly as it had arrived.

He looked outside the window of the plane, hoping that the waves of the ocean would send him to sleep and hopefully not have any more headaches.

The waves were gone, the water was gone, he was looking down at green grassland. They couldn't have possibly reached land already. He looked around the plane, no one was moving, and the plane was not descending.

"Erm, excuse me, James is it?" said Michael. James put his magazine away and gave Michael a look that caused him to swallow. "Can you tell me what you see outside the window?"

"What?" Asked James

"Outside the window, I just wanna be sure we're seeing the same thing."

"Ain't nothing out there but water, and only water for the next 6 hours"

"What's he saying?" Vidic's voice came from the back of the plane.

"Wants me to tell him what I see outside the window, trying to be a smartass."

Vidic didn't say anything to that but instead came and sat next to Michael.

"What do you see out there Michael?" He sounded genuinely curious.

"Just water, like James said."

"Don't lie to me. What do you see?"

He took a moment to think about what to say, when no good lie came to him he decided truth was best.

"Land stretching in all directions, green grassland, it's like a whole continent just appeared" He said.

"Pangaea. Your memories have regressed further into the past than ever. This is interesting." His conversational tone made Michael frightened as hell. "We'll have to run some tests once we get to Abstergo, if you start to experience memories when you just walk around, we might not even need the Animus.

"Vidic, is there anyway what I'm seeing isn't real?"

"Perfectly possible you could just be losing your mind, but I wouldn't bet on that."

"Well then I feel I should tell I'm not only seeing land down there, I'm seeing what I can only describe as, skyships." The term sounded ridiculous to Michael, but it was the only way he could describe what he was seeing. A whole fleet of them, bigger than any ship he had ever seen and shaped more roundly than a sea ship, they moved a few thousand feet below their jet, slowly and quietly.

"You are joking I hope." Said Vidic.

"I wish I was, but it's the only thing I can think of calling what I see." James had completely forgotten about his magazine, and was now looking at Michael as one would look at a mentally unstable person whom you weren't sure wasn't dangerous.

"How long until we get back to Abstergo, James? Asked Vidic.

James slowly moved eyes away from Michael and looked at Vidic.

"About six hours sir, if weather permits." He said.

"You're not going to explain to me why I'm seeing skyships, and it's supposedly a memory of some ancestor of mine?"

"Not until we know more, right now I'm as confused as you are." Replied Vidic.

The fact that Vidic didn't know everything should have made Michael happy, but Vidic not knowing what was going on was scary and, strangely, exciting.

Six hours later they arrived at the personal landing strip of Abstergo Industries. Michael was swiftly put into a black SUV with blacked out windows and they drove for about an hour before he was taken out of the car and practically frog marched towards the Animus room and through to his bedroom. There they left him and closed the door.

Not being able to see out of any windows because of the room he was in, Michael did not know if it was still daytime when Vidic walked back into his room, accompanied by James the bodyguard.

"It seems you might be special, Mr Black." Said Vidic.

"What are you saying?" replied Michael

"The memory you tapped into, it is the oldest one we have ever heard of, and you didn't even need to use the Animus, your mind seems very open to new information."

"You're saying this will continue to happen to me?"

"Most likely. We'll have to monitor you closely so we don't have an episode like we did when you collapsed."

"Can you make it stop? Make it stop!" He was panicked, he didn't know what caused him to panic maybe it was a subconscious feeling that all these memories would change him from the person he was, to something completely different.

"Calm down Mr Black, nothing bad is going to happen to you as long as you're with us."

"Well that makes me feel much better, considering it was your fucking machine that did this to me in the first place!" James hit him then, not very hard but enough to daze him a little.

"Don't get angry at me, you have been a lot of trouble for me, and the only reason you're still alive is because I'm convinced to can help us with our mission."

"Yes, your mission to change the past, excuse me for not being as convinced as you are." Vidic ignored this remark and instead continued what he was saying.

"You will tell us if you have any more visions, I don't want to have to put you in a drug induced coma to get information out of you."

"No. We wouldn't that." Said Michael, his voice quiet but anger coming from it.

"Goodnight Mr Black."

He left then and James followed, but not before he said.

"Sorry for hitting you, just my job" Then he too left. _Just your job. I think I'll kill you next_. Michael's eyes widened, what had caused him to think that? But he knew, he went to bed then, he didn't sleep for the whole night for fear of dreaming of the mafia hitman in the 1920s.

His thoughts drifted, as they always seemed to nowadays, towards Chloe. He had to find a way to take her with him when he escaped from this place. He laughed then, a full hearty laugh, of a man who knew his situation was hopeless but refused to see it.


	15. Symbiosis

**Symbiosis**

"How long have you been here?" Asked Miss Lewis, the psychiatrist. She wore her regular black suit and was seated across from Michael in a leather chair that dwarfed her. He was seated in a similar chair.

"One month and two weeks." Replied Michael.

"And how much longer is there in your contract?"

"Four months and two weeks."

"How are you enjoying your stay?" She obviously knew how he was enjoying his stay, and Michael was in no mood to play games.

"I killed a man two weeks ago. Didn't even think about it, he was in my way so I killed him." This didn't seem to faze her one bit.

"How do you feel about killing that man?" She asked with infuriating patience.

"How should I feel about it? Horrible, sad, happy, excited, which one of these gives you the most to talk about?" Michael replied with venom in his voice.

"What do you think caused you to kill him?"

This made him pause. For days now he had been debating with himself on whether it was his memories and experiences of the hitman of the 1920s that caused some kind of instinctual murderous reaction, or if it was in fact something within him, Michael, that had caused him to act in such a way.

"That machine caused this. How can you let this thing happen, knowing what you know about what it's doing to me?!"

"The needs of the many, outweigh-"

"You're gonna quote Star Trek to me now"

She smiled at this.

"Regardless of their source", She said, "The words are true, your wellbeing is not above the wellbeing of the rest of the world. What you have locked away in your DNA can help shape the world of tomorrow."

"But you were the one that said it was too dangerous to use the machine because it might harm me, why the change of heart?" she had changed her tone pretty quickly once they had come back and she had seen the chest they found.

"That was before I knew what you were."

"I'm an analyst."

"Not anymore, you are perfect example of Lamarckian Inheritance." She said as if he should what that meant.

"You know what I don't even care what that is, can we just get this session over with, come on show me the stupid ball again."

She sighed and pulled out a silver ball about the size of a clenched fist and held it up to his face.

"Tell me what you see." She said. Every day for the last week she had ended all their sessions by bringing out the silver ball and telling him to tell her what he sees. Every day he stared at the thing and saw nothing. Every once in a while he would be looking at it and think he was beginning to see his memories of past lives appear on the surface of the ball, but they would fade before they could coalesce.

"I see my reflection. It's all I've been seeing for the past week. How is a silver ball supposed to make me see anything?" He asked, annoyed.

"It's supposed to be something your mind can focus on, and hopefully, you can then sort out which memories are your own and which aren't." She replied calmly.

"By that logic I can use anything as a focus, why do you I need to look at this thing all the time?"

"We can find something else if you think that would help."

"It's not the thing I'm looking that's the problem. It's this whole exercise, it's pointless, I'm not going to remember anything on command, it just kinda happens."

"And once we figure out what triggers them, you'll be able to control when they happen."

"Did you not hear me? I can't control them, you don't think I've tried?!"

"There's no reason to get angry Michael. I'm trying to help you here." Her calm voice was actually making him angrier.

"You know what fuck you, you bitch!" His mind reeled. The memories of the hitman from the 1920s flooded his head, he remembered how to kill a man without making a sound, he forgot how to use a computer. He remembered how to shoot a gun and never miss, he forgot his own name.

Then it left him. The anger of the man who had possessed still lingered with him.

"What's happening to me?!" He yelled at Betty, anger gone from his voice but not from his thoughts. "Please do something! Reverse this!"

"We don't know how to do that Michael, what you and Chloe are experiencing is something totally new. I wish we could help you." She actually sounded concerned and got up out of her chair to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Seeing his chance, Michael grabbed her hand bent her arm behind her back, she screamed in pain as he pulled it further up her back and pushed her towards the doorway leading out, he grabbed her fountain pen and placed it up to her neck.

"Open this fucking door now, you limey fucks!" the personality Tony the hitman was fighting its way up again. Michael didn't fight it this time since Tony seemed to know what he was doing. "You know I can kill this bitch! Now open the door or she dies." For a while there was only silence and occasionally a whimpering noise coming from Betty. Then;

"Then she dies." It was Vidic's voice coming through the speakers in the room.

"You think I'm bluffing?! I'll slit her fucking throat!" He shouted at the disembodied voice of Warren Vidic, Michael's thoughts at this time were whether he would actually allow Tony's personality to overwhelm his own to the point where he would actually Betty. He guessed he could probably take control back before Tony actually did it.

"I don't think you're bluffing at all, she's just less important than you."

"What?!" Betty shouted in disbelief.

"Okay fine, you think I'm not series, well you clean up the mess!" He pulled the pen back to jab into her neck as hard as he could, Michael tried to gain control again, and his thoughts hit a mental wall thicker than reality. He saw and felt her blood spray over his face as he stabbed her and pulled the pen out. She didn't bleed out immediately. She was on the floor, her legs spasming and her hands were clasped at the wound in her neck, she tried to speak but choked on her own blood.

_She looks like a stuck pig, _Tony's thoughts were the only thing the remnants of what was Michael could even interact with. During this exchange Tony was waiting to see who would come through the door.

_What did you do!?_ Michael's thoughts exclaimed, he physically could not use his mouth to say the words.

"Who said that?!" Tony turned around the room, looking for the source of the voice he heard.

_Get out of my head!_

"Seriously show yourself you fucker or I'm gonna start breaking shit. He went over to where the two chairs were, from the therapy session, and picked one of them up. He threw it at one of the glass windows. It bounced off the window leaving only a scratch on the glass.

The main door opened and two security guards with guns ran in.

Michael suddenly had control of his own body again, he ducked behind the other chair the were using for the therapy session. The two men walked over Betty's now lifeless corpse.

"Come out of there now!" One of them called out. Michael stood up with his hands up, he stood where he was.

"Please I don't know what's going on, that wasn't me" He motioned to the corpse at the door.

"Shut up, step up to me slowly, no sudden movement or I'll blow your head off."

Michael did as he was told. Tony took control again, he moved faster than the guard could react. He took the gun, and held the security guard as a human shield. The other guard did not fire immediately and Tony shot him in the head, then turned his meat shield to face him. Gun pointed at the guard's head he asked his question.

"Where's Chloe?!" Tony did not know what made him ask this, it seemed vitally important.

"I, I… don't know" replied the stuttering guard. Tony shot his knee. The guard fell to the floor in agony.

"I'll ask again, where is she?!"

"Two floors down, in the animus lab! ARGH, My fucking knee!"

"Shut up." Tony shot him in the head.

He picked up the other guard's gun and left the room. Armed with two guns he ran through the corridors and down the stairs looking for this girl Chloe that he felt was so important. Then Michael took over again.


	16. Rescue

**Rescue**

Michael stopped running and looked at the two guns in his hand. _Right. Yes. Tony, the fucking psychopath._ He remembered where the guard had said that Chloe's room was and started running again. The feeling he had when he could not control his own body's movements were of sheer terror, the only other experience he had ever felt like it was when, occasionally he would wake up and not be able to move his legs or arm momentarily, and for that moment he thought he had become a quadriplegic.

No that wasn't an adequate description of what it had been like to be trapped in his mind while his body committed murder, it was more like a nightmare, a nightmare so real, so visceral and disorienting that only looking back on it could he make any sense out of what had happened. He still didn't, and thought he might never, know whether the actions he took were all Tony's or, if some part of him had allowed Tony to kill the two men. He could think about this no longer for he had arrived at the corridor which led to Chloe's room.

There were four guards waiting for him. They drew guns and immediately Michael, not Tony, acted and shot two in the legs. They slumped to the ground and dropped their guns, the other two managed to fire a few rounds before Michael practically threw himself into the men's bathroom on his left. The gunfire outside hit the wall and bits of brick pelted him as he entered the bathroom. He had no time to think and instinct took over, who's he could not say, _Oswald? _He looked at his guns, one was empty.

He put the one that still had bullets into his trousers, and took the clip out of the empty gun and held both the gun and clip like throwing knives. He waited for what seemed like eternity. No sound from outside.

Then the door flew open, but no one came in, he stood there ready to pounce on anyone who came through. A silver canister was thrown in, and then smoke started to shoot out of both ends. Michael threw the gun at the smoke grenade at just the right angle to knock it back outside, and then went into the middle cubicle of the bathroom.

Two men wearing gas masks walked in and stopped at the entrance with automatic machine guns aiming down the length of the bathroom. One of them turned to the other.

"Check the last cubicle first, he's probably in there." Said the masked man, in a deep gruff voice.

Michael kept very still as he saw the feet of one of the men move past the stall he was in, then he took his chance, he pulled out his gun slowly, kicked the stall door open, turned to the guard at the entrance and shot him with deadeye precision in the gas mask, causing an explosion of red behind the eye slots, before the man behind him could turn around. As he did turn around Michael threw the clip at him causing the guard to instinctively put his elbow up for protection, this split second window game Michael just enough time to shoot him twice in the chest before his gun ran out of bullets.

The man didn't go down; he had on a bullet proof vest. He stumbled and Michael grabbed at the arm with the machine gun, the man resisted.

His grip on it was too strong to yank the weapon away so Michael grabbed the back of his neck, punched him in the side and then pushed his head into the side of the sink. Again, and again, and again. The mask broke on the third try and his head was exposed to the cold porcelain of the sink, and once more Michael brought the man's head down on the sink and with a sickening crunch, cracked his skull on the sink. He let the body drop to the floor in a heap.

Michael picked up his machine gun and took a spare clip from the gun of the other dead man; _don't wanna run out of bullets again._ The thought would never have occurred to him if he didn't have all these new memories and experiences swimming around in his head.

He slowly turned the corner, pointing the machine gun down the corridor to Chloe's room. There were bloodstains on the floor where the two guards Michael had shot in the legs were. Slowly he moved down the corridor until he stood outside of the room. He pressed his ear up to the door and could hear something like feet shuffling coming from the other side. Too many to be less than three people. He walked back up to where the dead men lay and rummaged through their jacket to see if they had anything he could use. The man at the entrance had a stick of C4 in one of his many pockets and a detonator. Michael took these and placed the C4 on the door to Chloe's room. _This is crazy, this stuff just doesn't happen in real life. _But it was happening and while his mind was trying to process this, his body knew what to do as it deftly attached the detonator's wires to the explosive. He then moved back as far as he could, and hit the trigger.

The explosion sent his ear ringing and the hallway was covered in dust. He ran to the now open door, through the cover of the dust, from inside he could hear pained moaning from the people who were close when the blast hit. His gun raised in preparation he quickly moved in.

Spotting two armed men on his left, he fired two quick bursts and they fell to the floor, _probably just knocked out if they were wearing armour_. He walked past one man who was grasping for a leg he no longer had, the leg was three feet away on a chair.

"Chloe?!" He yelled, "Chloe it's Michael, are you here?!" He was scanning the room for anyone hiding behind a wall, but none so far. Then the door from the bedroom opened.

Out stepped Chloe being pushed at gunpoint, the gun pressed up against her back, by Dr Fontaine.

"I think we've had enough of that now. Put down your gun and I won't kill her." Said the Doctor, in a good imitation of Vidic's patronising tone.

"If you kill her I'll kill you, you're not very good at bargaining" replied Michael, still not putting the gun down.

"Can we please stop talking about me as if I'm not on the receiving end of a bullet?" Said Chloe, she seemed much more alert and confident now then she had the last time he saw her.

"Please be quiet Chloe, men are talking." Fontaine said, still in that overly confident and patronising tone.

"You know doc, you shouldn't ever hold the gun right up to a person's back." Then Chloe, with a speed Michael had never seen before, turned around, grabbed the gun pointed at her back, aimed it straight at Michael and fired one shot, before he could react.

The bullet went past Michael and hit a man right behind him who was moments away from grabbing him. He fell dead where he stood.

She then turned around and pistol whipped Fontaine in the face. He fell on his knees holding his bloody nose.

"You stupid bitch! I'll have you crucified!" He spat at her.

"Oh do you never stop." She said calmly, and shot him twice in the chest and once in the head. Then she turned to Michael.

"Well? I thought you were rescuing me."


	17. Getaway

**Getaway**

He could only stare at her. She moved over to him grabbed his face and planted a kiss on his lips. Surprise snapped him out of his daze and he quickly pulled away.

"What are you doing?!" saying this a bit more forcefully then he intended to.

"Don't worry yourself. That was just Laura. She was a bit promiscuous when she was alive, sometimes she just takes over when she sees a handsome man. You should feel flattered."

"Laura? One of your ancestors?" He asked,she nodded, "And who am I speaking to now?"

"The virgin mary, who'd you think? It's me Chloe, now let's get out of here before more of these bastards show up." she replied and then went over to one of the dead guards and pulled his ID card from his pocket.

"Right lead on, hero man." She smiled at him and nodded for him to move. He looked at her for a second _she crazy_, then checked himself and thought people would think he was crazy for knowing what he did.

He moved out of the room and out onto the corridor. Surprisingly it was empty and he said as much to Chloe.

"Well it certainly couldn't be that they are setting up a trap somewhere else." She replied. Remaining quiet Michael moved down the hallway, assault rifle pointed and ready to kill anyone who might show up. They found a flight of stairs at the bottom of the hallway, Michael opened the door and walked down the stairs, Chloe at his back.

"So what took you so long?" she said.

"What d'you mean?" he said.

"With coming to get me, I assumed you'd have tried it after you killed that one guy a few weeks back."

"I was trying to escape that day, didn't even think about coming to get you."

"Well thanks. So what stopped you?"

"A voice in my head said I had to save you."

"Yeah I got voices in my head too telling me to do stupid shit too."

He smiled at this and turned to look at her still sticking close to him. He felt the bullet before he heard the shot. The pain spread like liquid fire through his thigh and he fell down on a step screaming from the pain. Two men were coming up the stairs with machine guns.

Chloe shot the first man right through his helmet visor, a red mist spreading over it. The second saw her first and fired a burst from his rifle. She was already running up the stairs by this point and his rounds missed her head by inches and hit the wall behind her, bits of stone hitting Michael in the head. The second man grabbed Michael and yanked him down to his level, put the the gun to his head and yelled up the stairs.

"Come down now or I will blow his brains all over these stairs!"

"No you won't!" Came the reply from up the stairs.

"You have until the count of five to come down or I will kill him! One, Two-"

"Threefourfive!" She shouted as she dropped from the top of the stairs right in front of the man holding Michael, as she came down slamming the butt of her rifle on top of the man's head, he staggered backwards in a daze and grabs his helmet, removes it and places the barrel of her gun in his mouth.

Michael dropped to the ground, looking at his leg he saw that there was a small patch of blood on his trousers where the bullet hit and a steady drip of blood coming out of another whole on the other side. He put pressure on it and immediately regretted his decision as it sent another spasm of pain through his leg.

Chloe was still preoccupied with the guard.

"What was that you said about brains all over the stairs?" she said. He said something but the gun barrel in his mouth was making his words sound like nonsense. She grabbed his head then, took the gun out of his mouth and turned him around.

"Michael can you walk?"

"I think so, give me one second." he lifted himself up on his one good leg and balances on the wall. Chloe turned back to her prisoner and frog marched him down the stairs and out through the door on the car park floor. Michael, limping after her with his head down, almost bumped into her back as she abruptly stopped just outside the door.

"What's wr-?" he started to say as he looked up.

He almost bit his tongue as he closed his mouth too quickly, in front of them were at lest twenty armed men, all pointing assault rifles and pistols in their direction. Vidic walked up in front of them.

"I think we've all had enough excitement for one day, don't you?" he said

"I think you should go fuck yourself!" Chloe shouted at him.

Then she changed, her demeanour became that of what Michael had seen on the first day he met her, she dropped the gun and retreated as far back as she could, bumping against the wall.

The guard that was her prisoner picked up the gun she dropped and walked back to where Vidic was.

_No, we're so close, why did she have to change back now. This hurts so much!_

"Vidic please, why are you doing this to us?" said Michael

"You agreed to this." was his simple reply

"We didn't agree becoming schizophrenics!"

Vidic walked up to Michael and produced his own pistol from his coat pocket, for some reason Michael's first thought was how easy it was to conceal it, it was a Type 51 Semi-Automatic pistol. He levelled it up to Michael's head.

"I should kill you simply because of simply the amount of people you have killed while you stayed here."

"You wanna talk about murder, what about you just letting the psychiatrist get murdered by my psychopathic ancestor."

"I wasn't the one who stabbed her in the neck, and left her to bleed out."

"So what now, are you gonna-" Michael felt a push, an almost phyiscal push coming from inside him, it was almost the same kind of pressure as the first time he had got in the animus, new memories were flooding him, the most vivid of which, was a woman in pink.

"You know, the last time I saw someone with a gun like that" Michaels voice said, "It was chink commie fuck." Vidic saw it too late, and Oswald had time to grab his hand and push the hand holding the gun up, a shot was fired, and the a bit of the ceiling flaked off as the bullet buried itself in it. Michael/Oswald tore the gun from Vidic's grip and pistol whipped him hard round the face. He grabbed Vidic and turned him to face the men with guns, using Vidic as a meat shield he ordered the men to lower their guns.

"Do as he says goddamit!" Shouted Vidic. The men slowly lowered their weapons. Michael moved close to Chloe, pulling Vidic with him.

"Chloe, move c'mon we have to get out of here." She made no attempt to move, it didn't even seem like she understood what she was saying. _Fuck! _Another of his psycho ancestors was trying to push his way up to take control and Michael was having a hard time keeping it all under control. He pointed to one of the armed men.

"You help me with her, take us to a car and turn it on." Vidic gave the order to do what Michael said.

The man went over to Chloe and led her along to a car, Michael stayed behind them as they moved up through the ranks of men guarding the cars. When Michael walked past them, they had opened a way for them to get through, he was distinctly aware of their eyes on his back, he was fairly certain they wouldn't shoot for fear of maybe a bullet hitting Vidic by accident. His guess was right, no one shot.

"You know we will just find you again, our resources are endless." said Vidic.

"Don't you ever get tired of spouting bad guy lines. Move." And he nudged him on.

They got to a car, Chloe was put in the back and Michael sat Vidic down on the front passenger seat.

"You're our insurance."

He then got in the car himself and drove them all out of the car park.

He had never been happier in his life to see buildings and roads, and people, so many people. It only hit him just now that for the past month he had little to no human contact outside of the lab and therapy sessions, it felt good, even just to see them. He turned to Vidic as they drove, every so often looking at the road then back to Vidic.

"Now as I'm sure this car has a tracker on it you probably have a helicopter following us as we speak, because you have endless resources. Why don't you take your phone out of your pocket and call up head office or whatever and tell them to stop doing that right now."

"Or what?"

"Or I'll kill you. One less person to worry about." He was serious, and he didn't know how much of it was himself and how much his ancestors, he didn't even know if he himself hadn't changed somewhat because of this whole situation.

"You won't kill me, every person you've killed so far has been one of your ancestors handiwork, I'm not talking to them right now."

Michael shot him in the foot. Vidic screamed and cursed, blood poured out of the hole in his expensive shoe.

"Hurts doesn't it? I'm not sure who you're talking to right now, what I'm sure of is that if you don't do what I say you will die."

"You fucking cretin, you'll pay for this!"

"Again, the bad guy lines, call them now!"

Vidic pulled out his phone and dialled a number.

"Call off trackers. Yes do it now don't question me!" He ended the call and looked at Michael, "It's done, what now."

"Now you die." and Michael pointed the gun at Vidic's face.

"Stop!" Chloe's voice came from the back. "You can't kill him!"

"Why?"

"He has to live" She was very lucid now, no trace of the invalid of earlier.

"Again, why?"

"I was told he has to, he has a part to play still."

"Told by who?"

"You know who."

Michael looked from her to Vidic, still with his eyes closed and prepared to die. Michael cursed and put down his gun, stopped the car and kicked Vidic out.

"Looks like you have one last chance old man, don't waste it." That line definitely came from Tony, it was just cheesy Mafia enough.

Closing the door Michael sped off, he could see Vidic limping in his rear view mirror.

"Chloe, we're gonna have to stop some place soon so you can drive." he said

"Why?"

"Because it hurts driving a car when you have a hole in your leg."


	18. The Clearing

**The Clearing**

Sometime between Chloe getting in the driver's seat of the car and them managing to get on the highway, Michael fainted.

When he woke up it was night and the car was stopped, his leg was bandaged and the bandage was stained with his blood. Chloe was not in the car. Fear rose in him and he bolted upright. Outside of the car all he could see were woods and darkness.

"Chloe!" he yelled as he stepped out of the car, stumbling because of his leg. "Chloe answer me!"

A rustling in the bushes made him turn around and crouch, ready to pounce on whatever came out of the woods. _The gun, where's my gun?, _it was in the car and he had no time to get it. It turned out he didn't need it, what emerged out of the woods was a deer. It stopped when it saw him, man and animal locked in time waiting for the other to make a move that would restart time. A second noise from his left made him turn quickly and the deer ran off in the other direction.

Chloe came out of the trees carrying something on her jumper, which she had pulled into a bowl shape.

"You're awake!" She said when she saw him, "And just in time too, I got dinner"

She walked over to him and handed him some of what was on her jumper, they were berries.

She walked to a spot just a few feet away from the car and sat down. Michael walked over to and saw it was a campfire that he hadn't seen because the car was obscuring it from his view.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"About ten miles outside of the city, I stopped when I saw you passed out. Your leg was bleeding pretty badly. I patched it up."

"Thanks. Is it safe out here though, I mean Vidic will be looking for us and that car probably has a lowjack on it."

"You mean this?" She pulled out of her pocket a small black square about the size of her palm, wires were sticking out of both ends. "Yeah I disabled it hours ago, if he is looking for us, well there's a lot of woods to cover before he finds us."

"How'd you know where it was?"

"Same way I knew how to talk to you through the animus, my mother, she designed most of the systems present in the machine and she also was part of the R&D team at Abstergo. She had access to all kinds of technology, this little thing being one of them. I have her memories now so they came in handy."

"Your mother works for Abstergo?" _What kind of woman would let her child be experimented on this way, she must have known the risks!_

"She worked for Abstergo, past tense. She died a year ago."

"Oh. I'm sorr-"

"Don't say that. People say that all the time when bad shit happens. You didn't know her so why should you be sorry."

"It just...seemed like the thing to say."

She was silent then, eating her berries. She looked very fragile to him all of a sudden, he felt the overwhelming urge to go over to her and hold her. An image came into his head of her crying into his chest and him brushing her hair and reassuring her, _it's okay, I'm here it's okay. _He did none of this instead he kept on talking.

"How'd she die?" he asked.

"They killed her, Abstergo. I'm sure of it."

"Why would they kill her?"

"You've seen what they're like, they don't care about people, just how much use you are to them. She probably just disagreed with something that prick Vidic said and he had her killed." Her accent had changed abit, it had got distinctly more Irish as she was speaking. Michael guessed it was one of her ancestors mixing with her. The fact she didn't realise it made him nervous.

"Well if they did kill her, how did you end up in that lab? Didn't you try to run?"

"They got me when I was asleep, came into my room one night and took me. They do the same to you?"

"I...I volunteered." He was embarrassed to admit this although he knew he shouldn't have been. _I didn't know what it was going to be like._

"Dumb fucking choice."

"You swear a lot, anyone ever tell you that?" he said this a slight smile on his lips. She looked at him and then broke into laughter. She laughed long and loud. He laughed too. It felt good to do laugh after months of all the insanity that was Abstergo. Her laugh slowly changed, it slowed, it changed into her crying, quietly, she trembled with the effort to stop herself. He went over to her and grabbed and held her. A much less romantic version of the vision he had in his head. She looked up at him after a while.

"Who are you?" She said. Michael didn't know what to say, then she pushed herself away from him. Her accent had changed again. New York, Brooklyn. He recognised the distinctive husk of it. "Who the fuck are you?!" She said again.

"Michael, I'm Michael don't you remember me?" He was being as calm and reassuring as he could possibly be, smiling at her in a way which he hoped was nice and not creepy.

"Buddy I don't know you from dog shit. Where am I?"

"In the woods outside of Flint, Michigan. You drove us here remember."

"No I don't remember, what the fuck am I doing in Michigan?!"

"Chloe snap out of it c'mon, just fight through it."

"Who the hell is Chloe, I'm Alma."

"Alma?" _The name rang through his head. The name Chloe had said to him the first time they'd met. Why would she say this woman's name?_

"Yeah Alma, the girl you've kidnapped, and don't bullshit me about Michigan, we're just in central park. I can hear cars nearby."

"Alma, I haven't kidnapped you I assure you of that. Now this might sound weird, but what year do you think it is?"

"What kind of dumbass question is that?"

"Humour the dumbass."

"Nineteen Twenty Two. June."

_Why is that date so important?_

"Hey I don't know what your game is but I'm leaving, and if you try to follow me I'll gut you."

With that she turned and ran into the woods to where the sound of cars was coming from.

"Chloe. Alma wait!" He ran after her, limping, through the woods, he could see her running in front of him, and shadow in the darkness. He followed her but he couldn't keep up, his leg was hurting him too much and he had to slow down. Soon he lost track of her. He kept moving slowly going in what he hoped was a straight line. Following where she had disturbed the branches of trees as she was running through. He saw her after a few minutes. She was sitting in a clearing in the trees. She was hugging her legs and was very quiet.

He stopped and just looked at her for a minute, not wanting to scare her. Then slowly he moved closer to her, his foot stepped on a twig and broke it. She turned around and kicked away from him with fright.

"No no no no, don't it's okay I'm your friend" _That didn't sound creepy as hell. _To show he wasn't dangerous he took a step back and sat down next to a tree. His leg was killing him. They sat in silence for a while, staring at one another. Michael was rubbing his leg to try to massage some of the pain away.

"You hurt your leg." Said Chloe. He stopped rubbing he leg and looked at her.

"Yeah. Somebody shot me."

"You're a bad man."

"I'm not. Why do you think I'm a bad man?"

"Only bad men get shot. My mom said that."

"Well I'm not a bad man, a bad man shot me though."

"Why?"

"Because he was told to."

"By who?"

"Another bad man."

"Who are you?"

"Michael. What's your name?"

"Sarah. I'm not supposed to be in the woods after dark."

"How old are you Sarah?"

"Seven and three quarters."

"Do you know what year it is Sarah?"

She looked at him puzzled for a moment. Then.

"Eighteen sixty six."

_She's going further back. I have to snap her out of it._ He stood up then slowly. He walked up to her and she made to run away but he raised his hand in front of him, palm facing her, basically saying not to worry, slowly she sat back down again and he walked to her.

"Do you want to see if we can find your mom?" she nodded and stood up. She must have thought he was a really short man because of how close to her heigh he was. Nevertheless she grabbed his hand like she was child be led and followed him as he led her back to the car. Halfway through the walk she changed again. This time it was Chloe, but she didn't make any indication that she had, they merely walked in silence holding hands. At the car she spoke.

"You gonna let go of my hand or what?"

Michael turned to her and saw that she had changed again, she was smirking. He quickly let go of her hand and moved away.

"Sorry about what happened, how long was I gone for?" She asked.

"About an hour. Does it happen often?" he said.

"It's becoming more frequent, there's whole parts of my memory that are just a fog."

"Do you remember anything about what happens when one of your ancestors takes over?"

"Just flashes here and there. Why? I didn't do anything stupid did I?"

"No, it's just that one of the people that you changed into was this woman, Alma, does that name mean anything to you?"

"Fontaine, that asshole, said she was a great great aunt from the twenties, nothing else really. Why?"

"Well it's just that you said her name to me the first time we met, you looked right at me as you said it. I thought maybe it was important."

"Sorry I don't know why I would just say her name."

"It doesn't matter anyway. Let's just finish this feast you gathered for us. Then in the morning we'll decide what to do."

They sat by the campfire eating the berries. At one point the deer from earlier showed up again but it got spooked when they tried getting closer to it and it ran off. Nothing else happened during the night and they both slept in the car, moving the front seats as far back as they would go and reclining them as far back as it could. Michael had the urge to touch her during the night. He didn't know if it was a sexual thing or whether it was just a need to feel safe with someone else there. Maybe a bit of both.


End file.
